Titanium
by Ten-Faced
Summary: Barry wants to surpass his father one day. Lucas wants to prove that he's a somebody. Dawn wants to keep her home safe. They all want to be strong in the end, because being strong has many different meanings. And as they grow older and wiser and push at their limits, they'll all get stronger. Just in different ways. Platinum novelization, biweekly updates.
1. This Was Our Turning Point

A.S. (After Silph) 99

November 15

Verity Lakefront

* * *

><p>"<em>Barry<em>! Get back here!"

"NO!"

The blond boy ran as fast as he could, his feet pounding away at the slushy ground underneath with fervent terror. If he was a bit more relaxed, he might have enjoyed the opportunity he had to explore his new town, but there was a very pressing danger chasing him.

He may have had problems focusing on boring things, but that didn't mean that he would stick around to have his mom shove pills down his throat, especially when they stuck and scratched until his eyes burned and he choked –

At the next turn he stopped his train of thoughts because there was a girl on the edge of the lake, sitting with her back facing him. She was all hunched up and staring out into the lake. He couldn't see her face, but he thought she might be around his age. She didn't seem to care that she was sitting on a mound of snow.

Glancing around to make sure that his mom wasn't behind him, he snuck up to her. "Hi," he said without quite thinking it through.

The girl's reaction was perfectly justified. She was sitting, staring out at the lake near her home in what would hopefully be solitude to silently think about recent events in her life when all of a sudden, an unexpected, unfamiliar voice said 'hi' to her in a far-too chipper voice. She reacted as any normal human being would have.

Shrieking in surprise, the girl flinched forwards. It would have been fine, but her flinch had thrown her off balance and made her topple. She would have fallen into the water had Barry not swept in, grabbed her shoulders and yanked back with all of his weight. It turned out that he pulled just a bit too hard, as they both lost their balance – the second time in the span of a few moments for the girl – and fell over. "Ow!"

"Sorry," he apologized, and then saw that the girl's eyes were puffy and red, and wet. "Hey, were you crying?"

"Huh?" she rubbed at her face quickly. "Sorry," she sniffed.

"Hey, why are you sorry?" he laughed. "You're silly."

The girl gave him a small smile. "And you're weird."

Barry stuck his chest out. "I'm not weird!" he boasted loudly, forgetting that his mother was looking for him. "I'm AWESOME!"

The girl sniffed one last time, and then gave him a curious look. "Is that your name?" she asked, not recognizing the boy from around town.

"'Course not! My name's Barry! Barry Keizer! I just moved to Twinleaf town from Pastoria city and I'm going to be the best trainer in the world, just like my dad!"

At the mention of a father, her face fell just a bit. "I'm Dawn."

Barry wanted to grab her shoulders and shake some sense into her, only she looked kind of sad so he held off a bit. Still, she was doing it wrong. When one introduced oneself, one had to say their full name and where they were from. Like him. He was Barry Damien Keizer, formerly of Pastoria, new to Twinleaf – only, he didn't like the Damien part so he left it out even if his daddy said that middle names were really important. "Dawn what?"

"What?" she repeated, confused.

Now that confused Barry. "What?"

"Wait, what?" Dawn asked in an attempt to clarify everything between the two of them because she was really confused now.

"BARRY!" his mom's voice was loud and close.

He winced. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"It's my mom –" the hassled woman came swooping in and gripped her runaway son's hand firmly. "She's going to make me eat pills," he finished with a sigh as he was finally caught.

"Pills?" Dawn blinked. "Are you sick?"

"I think so. The doctor said that I have a dis – a dis . . . dis . . ."

"Disorder," Barry's mom filled in. Now that she had caught up to her son (thank Azelf and Mespirit – what if he had gotten attacked or kidnapped or lost in the woods she was unfamiliar with?) she could afford to be more relaxed. "Hello there. Are you Barry's friend?"

"I guess," but Dawn kept her wide blue eyes on Barry. "If there's something wrong and the doctor says you should eat pills then you should eat pills," she told him solemnly. "Or you might die."

Barry's mother sputtered at the completely incorrect direction the conversation was turning to, but Barry himself completely panicked. "Die?! Oh no! I'm too young to die! Mom, am I gonna die?!"

"No, you're not."

But her words were ignored because Dawn was speaking again and there was something about her that made Barry focus and listen to her. "You should eat your pills," she repeated. "Because if you die, people will be sad because they'll miss you. I think I'll miss you too, even if we just met. Want to be friends?"

It occurred to Margaret Keizer that Barry had met a person just as weird, if not more as he was. The odds of meeting such a person in the same region was . . . quite small, and she supposed that Barry was lucky to have found such a person in a small town like Twinleaf just after moving in. "I think you two would be good friends," she said to try and encourage Barry. _'Never let her go, son,'_ she thought, thinking of how children with ADHD were said to have difficulties with making friends.

"Sure!" Barry slapped his hand into her offered one. "Wanna come and eat cookies at my house? My mom makes awesome snickerdoodles!"

Dawn shook her head and got to her feet, brushing off the dirt from her clothes. "I have to go now," she said. "_My_ mom might be worried about me. But I'll see you around."

Because it was getting late, they went their separate ways for the day. In the evening, Barry took his pills without any complaint for the first time since getting them, heeding what his new friend had said to him. Margaret gave up on trying to convince her son that he wouldn't die, because he took his pills willingly after that.

The next day, they discovered that they were actually neighbours when Barry looked out of his new bedroom's window and saw Dawn's curious face. He yelled, and then dashed down the stairs and out of the house at six thirty in the morning to knock on the neighboring house's doors to yell for Dawn to come out and play, waking up half the town. Barry got in trouble, but Dawn had smiled and come out to play anyways with two homemade muffins in her hands so she could share her mom's delicious baked goods.

And they stayed good friends since, finding more and more common ground between the two until they were inseparable.

* * *

><p><span>A.S.99<span>

December 9 

Jubilife City

* * *

><p>Lucas was five when he was dressed in black and taken to Jubilife, where everyone was quiet and serious or crying; where everyone was standing outside in the street, despite the cold and despite the snow falling down and turning to black mush under their black-shoed feet.<p>

Some important looking people, like the serious old man his dad worked for, made speeches on platforms before everyone saluted pictures of the Champion and the Elite Four. In between the speeches, more people went around through the crowd handing out white flowers. A pretty lady gave him a sad smile before handing him a white flower that he held onto tightly.

His dad told him that this was because they – the Champion and the Elite Four – were dead. Like grandma. And because they were dead, everyone was here to pay their respects.

After the speeches, the salutes and the solemn ceremony at the site of a ruined building (he had vague memories of a bright and bustling building having been in that very spot, but it was really vague) his father took him by the hand to not lose him and went up to the serious old man. He was in black as well, and not in his usual white coat.

He still looked scary, but he also looked sad. Even sadder than grandpa did when they went to visit grandma's grave.

When he saw Lucas, clinging to his dad's hand, he shed a tear.

Lucas was five when he saw Professor Rowan cry for the first time.

* * *

><p>AN: 151st story. And to think that the story was originally only 2k+ long when I first thought of it somewhere around January (so far the prewritten part is around 180k+).<p>

This is a story based on both my Platinum playthrough (played through specifically for the purpose of writing this) and my Pokémon headcanon. Initially I was going to write a short story that was a theory on why no one seemed to know who the Champion was until the final moment, and then it ended up spanning the entire Pokémon universe in an attempt to write a realistic story of the events.

Generic blanket disclaimer: don't own it, don't claim anything that is not mine.


	2. The Beginning Trial

A.S.107

June 20th

_Today is the day I'll be entrusted with a Pokémon._

* * *

><p>Her average waking time was seven in the morning, give or take five minutes. Today, she woke up at five thirty.<p>

It was understandable – she was excited. Today was the day that she was going to get a Pokémon. And not just any Pokémon – a rare Pokémon from Professor Rowan himself.

The purpose wasn't to simply _give_ her a Pokémon, of course. The Pokémon Professor of Sinnoh was looking for new trainers to help with his research on Sinnoh's Pokémon. He planned on giving out Pokédexes to a few trainers to record all the information they could gather, tagging the migration of species across the region and such.

Essentially all she had to do was carry it around with her, add in comments and notes of her own and use it at her will and discretion. And that guaranteed her not only going on her journey, but also some decent ranking behind her trainer credit right from the start. A golden chance.

When Dawn and Barry's mothers had heard about this, they had jumped and gotten their children signed up. Barry and Dawn had shown just as much enthusiasm, since their mothers hadn't planned on allowing them to leave on a journey until they were both fifteen – two years later. The two of them poured everything they had into the applications, hoping that they would be chosen and allowed to leave on a journey ASAP.

Much to their surprise and excitement, they had been chosen as the 'finalists'. The email alerting them of this had also informed them that the professor would entrust them each with a rare Pokémon to test their compatibility with Pokémon.

Dawn wasn't sure if she'd be allowed to keep the Pokémon, but she did plan on treating it like a friend. Or how she would treat her own in the future – which, if she had anything to do with it, would be very soon. Hopefully that was the kind of behaviour the professor was looking for in a field assistant.

She dressed, and then went down the stairs as quietly as she could. Her mother wasn't up yet, so Dawn inhaled a bowl of cereal and leftover muffins before she stepped out of the house.

The morning air was chilly and slightly damp with the last bit of fog beginning to clear away under the June sun coming out. It was quiet, with the occasional Starly chatter breaking the silence.

And then Barry slammed his door shut. "Good morning, Dawn!" he shouted far too loudly.

Dawn hurried up to him and shushed him. "There are people sleeping," she hissed. "It's only six in the morning!"

"Five fifty-three, actually," he said, still slightly too loud. Dawn poked his chin, reminding him to lower his voice. "Fine. So, you ready?"

"Heck yeah," Dawn crossed her arms. "I should be asking that to you."

"Me? Pft," Barry made some exaggerated, arrogant hand gestures. "As if. I was born ready."

"You keep telling yourself that," Dawn grinned before her face became serious. "Did you pack your things?"

He nodded. The exact date for when their journey started hadn't been confirmed yet – they weren't even sure if they were going to get a _P__oké__dex_ yet – but the two of them had gone ahead and gotten ready in their excitement. As Barry's father always said, trainers were better over-prepared than underprepared.

"Good. Let's hope we didn't jinx ourselves."

* * *

><p>While he was all for the idea of making education and information as widespread and available as possible, Nathaniel Rowan did not believe that every single youth and youngster should be provided with a Pokédex when they chose to be a trainer.<p>

His reason for this surprising belief that often led him to debate fiercely for hours with Samuel Oak in Kanto was that the educational system these youths had to go through didn't fully prepare their mindsets to consider information as the valuable asset it was to interact with Pokémon.

Until something was done to make information a coveted treasure rather than an obligatory burden, his stance on the matter would not change no matter how many times Samuel tried to argue otherwise. The Pokémon Index Encyclopedia was a project born out of the tears, sweat and blood of many fine men and women, a few of whom had actually died or been severely injured while gathering the necessary data. He shuddered to see the product of such a gruelling project placed in rough and grubby hands that didn't give a whit of care, and the thought of entries either plagiarized or based on urban myths made him grimace.

The Pokédex project was still ongoing. Under his care and watch, and in the Sinnoh region, its couriers and participants would be responsible trainers.

That was part of the reason why he had explicitly wanted Twinleaf Town to be included in the pool of teenage Pokédex holders. It was a small town filled with rich people who wanted a quiet life away from the limelight. Some were retired, others went to raise their children away from tabloids and attention. Privileged, but not snobs. Educated. Well-resourced.

From Twinleaf there had been five applications sent in. One had obviously been written by someone else and two were too young. The two eligible were thirteen, a decent age, and had traits of what he was looking for.

The first was the son of the Tower Tycoon Palmer Keizer, and his very writing showed enthusiasm and a strong will. His school transcript and teacher's recommendation warned Nathaniel that the boy sometimes had trouble with paying attention, but it also showed that he could focus like nothing else when his attention was hooked, and he was definitely, strongly focused on a career path involving Pokémon, specifically the path of trainers.

The other belonged to a girl, whose application essay showed a confident girl willing and ready to face the world to prove herself. Like the former, she was also the daughter of a celebrity – Johanna Steele, legendary coordinator deemed a national treasure by the Sinnohan government for her performances. With the exception of an average score in math her grades were high, and her teacher sang praises for her in the letter attached, naming her as a hard-worker with lots of dedication and ambition.

Both had parents famous for their bonds with Pokémon, with no records on cruelty. There was a greater likelihood of the children carrying the same traits as their parents, and the same good habits. These two were ideal.

He planned on dropping by their houses to meet the parents separately, but the mothers were apparently friends with each other. They insisted that it was no bother to meet together at one household.

"Over there, professor," Lucas told him.

Nathaniel nodded and they turned. He planned to have Lucas as a part of the project as well. He was the son of one of his aides and he was intelligent, very much so. The boy was also dedicated to research, and had a genuine interest in it even at his young age – coincidentally thirteen like the other two.

Coming up to the house with the address he had been given, Nathaniel Rowan waited while Lucas rang the doorbell. Some sounds came from within before a familiar woman with a famous face framed with Western Sinnohan dark blue hair opened the door, wiping her hands on her apron.

"Professor," Johanna Steele, legendary coordinator, smiled and extended a hand to shake. "It's an honour to meet you. Please, come in."

* * *

><p>Nathaniel James Rowan was a man of many accomplishments. Back in his twenties when he had still been an actively battling trainer he had set a record by obtaining all the badges in the Sinnoh region under two years; impressive even in modern standards, but nearly impossible back in his day when the routes weren't as clear as they were now, with Sinnoh's winters as harsh and unmerciful as they always were.<p>

He had become the Tenth Champion when he was thirty four, resigning after two years to become a professor studying Pokémon after he realized that he was more interested in the field of research. He was one of the first people to help develop the Pokédex after Samuel Oak proposed the collectivization of all information known on Pokémon, providing critical data on evolutions. He had married Elite Four Bertha before she retired, and their union had produced a flying type expert who had gone on to become a member of the Sinnoh Elite Four herself. He had discovered the ancient power, double hit and rollout methods of evolution and aided in the research that had led to the discovery of incense breeding.

He was as tall as Dawn had imagined him to be, and quite intimidating. Nonetheless, she didn't look away when he turned his fierce eyes on her. "So you're Dawn," he said directly to her at last.

Dawn half-expected him to make some comment about how short she was, as people tended to do. Instead, he only nodded and moved his kind-of scary gaze onto Barry. He asked them both some questions about their opinion on Pokémon which they answered truthfully (and excellently), and then he nodded again. "Very well," he said after he finished the cookie her mother had offered him. "I shall entrust these Pokémon to you for three days. After that, you are to drop by my lab in Sandgem on June twenty-third. If you have managed to connect to your Pokémon, then I shall give you a Pokédex. Understood?"

"Yes sir," Barry answered enthusiastically, and Dawn echoed him.

"Hn. Dawn, here is the Pokémon you will be responsible for."

She took the Poké ball offered and gave a cursory check of the stats_. Piplup. Male. Full health._

"Based on what you've written in the applications, I would say that a Piplup would best demonstrate your capabilities as a trainer," he told her, passing her a thick booklet with information on how to properly take care of the specie. And it was true. Piplup overall were a proud, stubborn specie, a trait that did not die out through evolution. He didn't expect her to fully bond with the Pokémon, but rather earn something from the Pokémon. A bit of trust, or maybe respect.

In his experience, the ambitious went far when they had a control over their temperaments and knew how to yield instead of breaking. If she could yield, then she would be able to go far. If she could curb her patience and manage to yield, give enough to bond with a Pokémon he found to be stubborn and obstinate most times, then she would be good for the job.

Dawn smiled. "I'll do my best, sir," she said, taking the booklet. She would read it later when he was gone.

"Hn. As for you, Barry, I'll be entrusting you with a Turtwig."

The boy nearly snatched the Poké ball out of his hands, all but vibrating with glee. "_Awesome_," he sang. "Thanks, professor!"

Turtwig were constant creatures, but slow. A direct foil to the quick, impatient-looking boy. If he truly loved Pokémon as he claimed, then he would be able to ignore the difference between the two of them and forge some kind of bond. It was a test of the boy's patience, to see just how far he would be able to go when challenged.

Nathaniel handed him a booklet containing relevant information as well, drained the last of his tea and stood up. Lucas followed his example, hastily closing and fastening the briefcase with the last Pokémon inside. "If there are any troubles," he told them both, "don't feel hesitant to drop by my lab. Now that you have Pokémon with you, you should be fine, but the doors are always open."

"Thank you," the two of them chorused. "Bye, professor!"

Nodding, he left with Lucas. On the way back to the lab he gave the last of the three Pokémon to the young assistant. For Lucas, a Chimchar, playful and quick, would be ideal. The boy was a bit rigid, and needed to be more flexible. Fire was an element that would push him out of his comfort zone.

Back at Dawn's, she and Barry were releasing and meeting their Pokémon for the first time. "Hey, buddy!" Barry shouted at the Turtwig, who, though startled, seemed pleased at the enthusiasm the boy was showing.

Dawn smiled down at the blue bird. "Hi, Piplup," she said softly, sitting on the ground to get her eye level closer to his. "I'm Dawn – nice to meet you." She offered him a hand to shake.

The Piplup eyed everything – the inside of the house, the adults watching from the side, the boy nearby who happened to be excitedly shouting and twirling the Turtwig from the lab around – before he really looked at the girl. She was looking right back at him with waiting, anxious eyes. Eyes, facial expressions and body language all suggested someone easy to read and predict. She was a very open person.

He shrugged to himself. Good as any human, probably better than some, he supposed. He extended a flipper and shook her hand.

First contact had been established. Dawn smiled widely, confirming the Piplup's first reading of her – she was easy to read.

"You know," Barry said as he broke a cookie in half and offered it to his Turtwig. Dawn picked out a few of the small muffins and offered it to the Piplup, noting that he took the sour one. "Now that we've got Pokémon, there's really only one thing we have to do."

Dawn let the Poké ball roll on her knuckles. "You're on," she said, reading his mind.

The Pokémon were up for it. They ran outside and took their stances across each other in a pretend 'field'.

"Are you up for this?" he taunted, playing up the role of a cocky trainer.

"I was born ready," she retorted, matching his attitude tee for tee, tat for tat.

In unison, they struck silly and dramatic poses. "I challenge you to a battle!" they shouted together.

"Piplup!" as she called him, her mind raced with adrenaline and buzz. She tapped the Poké ball, accessing the more detailed information available to her. He knew two moves – pound and growl. Pound was a direct attack, while growl lowered attack. It was a choice between direct offense right off the bat and manipulation of factors before jumping in.

It didn't matter, not right now. They were both at base zero, starting from nothing. There was no fancy strategy she could toss around, no trap hidden in a Faberge egg concealed in a nasty surprise. Just a plain, physical fight. Piplup's speed against Turtwig's bulk, and the question was which was superior.

They wouldn't know until they fought it out. But she planned on winning. "Pound!"

Barry pointed a theatrical finger at her. "I _knew_ you'd do that!" he shouted. "Turtwig, withdraw!"

From then on it escalated (or de-escalated) into a large and rather unexcited mix of pound, tackle, growl and withdraw. It was nothing like the battles she saw on television, where there were flames and rocks bringing on great explosions onto the battleground, and certainly nothing like what she had planned for the future. It was more of a wrestling struggle between two little kids.

Nonetheless, she and Barry cheered them on like a billion Poké were at stake, because in a sense something priceless and unimaginable in value was invested in this seemingly-small battle. It was, after all, their first official battle together, out of school and simulated battles with borrowed Pokémon and testing knowledge of theory.

This was Dawn and Barry, at the very beginning.

Of course, since the Pokémon in their charge were rather inexperienced, that left them near the end of their rope pretty soon. The two Pokémon looked battered, like a single hit could knock them out easily.

The question was just who would be able to get that extra single hit before the other. And in that aspect, right now when they were around the same, Dawn had the advantage. Turtwig's bulk would be his undoing.

"Piplup, grab his head and push him aside," she ordered when Turtwig came charging.

Piplup did, and Turtwig's tackle was misdirected. His back – and more importantly, neck – was right in the range of Piplup's fins for a few precious seconds, and the water type was still capable of hitting hard. It was all they needed. "Now pound!"

That one extra attack was all that was needed to finish this. Exhausted, Turtwig fainted after being hit in the back of its head. Piplup didn't look much better, but he did flash a cheeky grin as she returned him to his poké ball. "Nice battle," she said.

"Whew," Barry wiped off sweat from his brow as he nodded. "That was close."

Even after resting their Pokémon, it was early in the afternoon. They made their way over to the lake, intending on visiting every place that was special to them at home to remember and commemorate the occasion before they left. Dawn also had to fill Piplup's Poké ball with water, just like the booklet said she should.

"So all water types need to have some water in their balls?" Barry asked her on the way. His father had a Milotic, but he had never mentioned that.

"No, but it's recommended," Dawn said, regurgitating the information from the booklet. "They can produce their own water, but it's in case they need more than they can produce, or if the trainer needs to save the fresh water produced for his or herself."

"Is that so . . . ." Barry trailed off. "Hey, Dawn, look."

Dawn looked to where Barry nodded towards and saw an adult, looking out at the peaceful waters and seemingly talking to himself. "Is he crazy?" Dawn asked Barry, a bit worried. It wasn't exactly uncommon for fanatics to come to Lake Verity for some kind of pilgrimage, and people in Twinleaf quickly grew used to such things. It wasn't until the crazies started to rant angrily and threaten to burn everything down that people got worried, and when they were worried they either called the police or one of the residents known for strong Pokémon. Barry's family was one of the households frequently called, thanks to his dad's strong Pokémon, but Johanna had been called upon a few times herself, as her Pokémon were well-trained and skilled battlers.

Sound could be heard from his direction; the sound of a voice. ". . . time . . . space . . . ."

Their lakeside mystery man turned slightly, making it easier for the two of them to overhear his words. "Until then, stay asleep in your lake, legendary."

He walked over to them, and for a moment Dawn didn't really know what to do. Was he going to yell at them, shouting about how the gods had shown him the end of the world and they had to repent for their sins? That had happened once, and it hadn't been a fun experience.

No, and no. He didn't even notice them until he was close. "Excuse me," he said.

He wasn't exactly the raving, messy-haired kind of crazy guy, but he did look oddly out of place at Lake Verity. He had a blank face, and looked capable of kicking baby Eevee without any remorse. She half-expected him to attack her and Barry.

He didn't. Barry and Turtwig moved aside first, he passed in between them and that was it. "Who was that person?" he wondered out loud, more to himself than her. "And what was that all about?"

"He seemed interested in Mespirit," Dawn commented. Now that Scary-Eyes were out of the scene, the cold sweat that had formed down her spine, as well as her reaction felt a bit silly. Piplup sniffed and then dove into the water. She filled the Poké ball with a good deal of water, enough for her to take five baths with. Since Piplup didn't know any water type moves just yet, that should have been more than enough for now.

"Huh. Hey Dawn!"

That was his I-have-an-idea voice, the one he used whenever he came up with a plan. "What?"

He grinned at her. "Let's catch the legendary of the lake!"

Dawn made a face. The legendary of the lake, Mespirit, was revered as the goddess of emotion. There were small shrines scattered all around Lake Verity, near the winding paths in the woods of the Lakefront. Almost all of the temples in the Southwestern part of Sinnoh were dedicated to her, and at least one-third of Sinnoh's religious population (which was pretty much around one-third of Sinnoh's population, as most of Sinnoh was religious) offered prayers to her even if she wasn't their primary patron goddess. She was the one people prayed to when they were happy, when they were in love, when they were grieving and when they just felt or wanted to feel something in their hearts.

Mespirit also happened to be one of the two primary patron gods Dawn's family prayed to, and Barry knew that. He just wasn't connecting the dots or using his brains.

"I mean," he continued on, oblivious to her irritation. "The professor's goal is to have us catch Pokémon to fill out information on the Pokédex-"

Dawn hit him on his arm as hard as she could. "Ow!"

"Barry Keizer," she snapped in the most threatening tone she could muster up, "if you ever try to catch Mespirit, I will _kill_ you."

Barry wasn't religious. His father prayed to Azelf, having grown up in Pastoria, but Barry's mother was one of the rare Sinnohans that didn't particularly believe in or prayed to a god (even if she did invoke the names out of habit when she was in pain, or surprised). He had followed her in that particular aspect, despite being identical to his sire in every other way. He didn't quite see the point on relying on the gods so much, and lacked the patience to sit through sermons every week.

But he did have a sense of self-preservation – weak as it was – carefully nurtured and cultivated by his mother and Dawn. "Okay, okay," he mumbled, knowing when he had to cut his losses. "Sorry."

Dawn huffed slightly, but forgave him. They spent the rest of the day tossing bits of muffins at Piplup in the water, and rolling a ball to Turtwig and back before heading home when the sun began to set.

* * *

><p>The next two days followed a pattern. Wake up, eat breakfast, spend the first half of the day running around outside before coming back for a lunch and then hanging out at home separately with their Pokémon.<p>

Dawn learned that the Piplup she was in charge of liked to eat sour food, shower in cold water and look at pictures of Prinplup and Empoleon but disliked climbing stairs and being carried in her arms unless absolutely necessary, and above all hated to sleep with the lights on.

It wasn't that he liked to take naps – on the contrary, he slept early and woke early. But his early sleeping, as well as his policy of no lights also meant that Dawn couldn't message her friend in Johto after he deemed it bedtime. Her PC was a desktop, so she couldn't just move to a different room to use it. The option of him ignoring the light was out, since he couldn't sleep with the lights from the monitor and her mom didn't have another computer.

Dawn negotiated a half-hour deal, where she had thirty minutes to converse with her travelling trainer pen pal before he put his flipper down. The alarm, set to thirty minutes, went off and he chirped impatiently. "Alright, alright," she gave and put the PC to sleep when he began chirping impatiently from the bed of cushions she had made him. He had made it clear that he wouldn't sleep on the floor and she felt bad about shoving him into a Poké ball, since as a lab Pokémon he wouldn't get many chances to spend time outdoors. Piplup found the arrangements suitable.

Dawn climbed into her own bed after turning the lights off. "You know," she said into the darkness. "I can't believe it's been three days already."

Piplup made a sound. He didn't like sound when he was about to sleep, either. A picky sleeper, like royalty. If he had been hers, she would have nicknamed him something like –

But he wasn't hers, and she shouldn't be thinking like that. "It's been nice knowing you," she said quietly. It had been fun bonding with him. Despite his pickiness with the light when he was sleeping, the Piplup had just fit right into her life like he had always been there.

He didn't protest too much at her talking, so she continued on. "I think you'll make an awesome Empoleon one day." She had, after all, noticed the way he looked at the pictures.

The Piplup wanted to grow into a regent of brine, ice and steel, just like she did. In him she saw herself reflected, as well as the patient ambition of waiting for a right opportunity to come by. She really did hope that his dreams would come true.

In the darkness the Piplup stared at the dark ceiling. It was quiet and dark with soft pillows all around and under him, just the perfect setting for him to go to sleep in, and yet slumber evaded him for a long time.

* * *

><p>AN: Yes, I changed up how they got their Pokémon and dex. One of my biggest problems with Pt was how they essentially had Prof. Rowan - one of the sternest profs in the Pokémon universe - just give out rare Pokémon to two random, reckless kids he met while taking his morning walk. Like, no. DP made some sense, at least, but no freebie handouts.<p>

And yes, Dawn was entrusted with the Piplup. Who knows if she'll keep it, but before you nag me about how it's too close to the anime and all, this is a story based off on my gameplay of Pt. I've played the Sinnoh games more times than I can count, and I almost always start with Piplup. It's just my personal preference. I considered giving her a Chimchar for the sake of mixing it up a bit, but ended up not doing that in 'Titanium'. The Dawn in 'the road to hell was paved with good intentions', however, did start with a Chimchar.

Finally - me uppercasing words like 'Pokémon' and 'Piplup'. I've had people tell me that there are grammar rules, and they were nice enough to explain and give me concrit. After a lot of thought (and going over a document with 180k+words at least five times to change format back and forth) I decided to stick with just uppercasing everything. Partially due to my laziness, I admit, but also because in the games the names seem to be uppercased. Just going to go by that logic.


	3. Start My Dream

A.S.107

June 23rd

_Today, the first step of my dream might come true._

* * *

><p>And then she was awake to sunlight streaming in through her window. It was morning, time for her to visit Professor Rowan's lab. After a breakfast where sour food made up the majority, Dawn and Piplup headed out.<p>

Barry would have probably raced the entire way to Sandgem town in his hurry. Dawn and Piplup set off down Route 201 at their own pace, enjoying what was probably their last hours together. Along the way, a few wild Starly tried to attack them, but each time Piplup was able to ward them off with some pounding. Maybe it was the few battles he'd had since temporarily coming into her hands, but he was certainly stronger.

"Nice one," a guy on the route applauded when Piplup took down his fourth Starly with ease. "Let me guess – you're starting out on your journey?"

Dawn nodded. Technically, she had to return home after getting the Pokédex from Professor Rowan so she and her mom could pick out a starter for her, but in a way she was all ready to go, bags packed and license shiny.

He smiled in a friendly way. "Congratulations. Tell you what – I'm a clerk at the Sandgem Mart, and I'm handing out potions to advertise our goods to trainers. Would you like one?"

"Are they free?" Dawn asked to be sure. She didn't want any strings attached to gifts.

He laughed. "Of course! Most Marts will give you a free item if you go there for the first time as a trainer."

"Then yes, please."

It was a potion. A plain, basic potion, nothing special or fancy. Nonetheless, it was nice, getting free things on her journey. Her mom had promised that she would help out if Dawn was ever in financial trouble, but other than that she was supposed to be on her own. Lyra, if she remembered correctly, had been a bit creeped out because a lot of 'old men' had given her things in the beginning of her journey way back in March, but had admitted that the freebies had been helpful so far. "Thanks!"

"No problem! Drop by the store if you ever need something!"

Promising that she would, Dawn continued on with Piplup until the tall grass began to recede and foot-worn ground showed through.

At the entrance to the town, she recognized the professor's assistant from yesterday. The boy named Lucas who now had a Pokémon with him as well, a red monkey with fire for a tail. A Chimchar – one of the three primary stages of Sinnoh's 'Big Three', of which Piplup and Turtwig were also a part of.

Apparently he recognized her too, because he came up to her, Chimchar sitting on his shoulder. "Hi," he smiled, much less awkward than before. "You must be Dawn."

"Hi," she extended a hand, trying to be friendly. "Lucas, right?"

He shook her hand. "Yeah. I've been waiting for you. Please just follow me this way – the professor's been waiting for you."

"Really?" her stomach contracted – and it wasn't the several homemade muffins she had gorged on this morning, although they were swirling uncomfortably at the news now. Had he been waiting long for her? She wasn't late, was she? "Where?" she asked reluctantly, pushing down the nerve-wracking 'oh shit' feeling.

He pointed to the largest and shiniest building around. It looked smart. Every beam and brick practically _radiated_ smartness. "That's the lab," he explained.

"Oh, okay." Not having anything else to say, the two of them began to step towards the double sliding doors when it slid open on its own. Barry came running out, narrowly missing hitting the metal. Dawn and Lucas weren't as lucky as the metal was, as he managed to run into both of them. "Ow!"

"Ow! Hey!"

So Barry was done with . . . whatever the professor had wanted to do. Now he stood, brushing dust off his palms, and made a face. "I'm not sure if he's scary, or just totally out there," he said to her, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Lucas bristled, losing some of his friendliness at the unintended insult towards the Professor, but before he could really lose his friendly face Barry waved with a huge smile. "Well, you're in for a real big surprise, but I won't ruin it for you, so see ya!"

And then Barry dashed off to the direction of Twinleaf before she could get a word in edgewise. Lucas took a deep breath and returned to his normal self. "Your friend's always in a hurry, isn't he?" he asked, grinning slightly. "Alright, let's go in.

It was a sterile environment obviously meant for research and, to a lesser degree, education. There were aides in white coats writing and looking into microscopes, and shelves filled with books. Lucas ignored them all and just continued on walking in deeper though, so she hurried after him with Piplup at her feet. He refused to be carried in her arms and she would respect that.

The professor himself was also in a white lab coat now, having traded his trench coat for the indoor lab. He had been reading a report at his desk in deep thought, but looked up when they came closer. "Hello, Dawn," he nodded to her. "Excellent timing. Come, sit," he gestured at the seat across his desk.

She relaxed a bit at that and did as she was told. So she wasn't late. Good.

Professor Rowan extended a hand to her, palm up. It was a hard, calloused hand that had seen many things, with the scars to prove the tales it told. "May I?"

Dawn handed the ball back with one last look towards Piplup. She would never forget him, she knew.

Instead of returning him, though, the professor merely checked some stats and then looked at Piplup, observing him for qualities only visible to him. The Poké ball was simply rolled around in his hands, toyed with while the professor thought. "Hn," he said at last. "It seems that you've bonded with this Pokémon."

Hadn't that been the purpose of this all? She asked him in more polite terms.

"Past my expectations," he clarified. "Very well. You may keep him."

A second later, when what he had said registered, Dawn jerked, nearly falling out of her seat. That, she hadn't expected. Big Three Pokémon in early stages were popular as starters, more so after the programs implemented by governments to promote their use, and she had always considered getting a water type for her first Pokémon, but she hadn't imagined the Piplup joining her. Truthfully, she hadn't dared. "Really?!"

Professor Rowan glanced down at the Piplup. Amazement on his face, as well as clear joy. He was making the right choice by giving her the Piplup. "Positive," he replied. "Consider him a gift from me, with best wishes for your journey. Would you like to give him a nickname?"

"Yes! But, um," she grinned sheepishly. "How do I make it official?"

He tapped at the Poké ball and pulled up something. "Normally, when you catch a Pokémon, the option for nicknames will automatically be offered," he explained, passing the sphere back to her with the keyboard waiting. Her Poké ball. Her Pokémon. "Once keyed in, the algorithms will lock the name permanently unless taken to an official name rater. For safety and security purposes, of course. What will you be naming this one?"

Dawn looked at Piplup. He was cute, she agreed, but there was more to him than that. There was a soul that wanted to become grand and great, and she knew there was ambition in the little guy, ambition in a heart far surpassing his current small shell. She had seen it in the battle between him and Barry's Turtwig, and recognized the fellow spark of determination to be the best. He was, like she had thought before, a mirror of her.

This one was born to be a king of the oceans, just like how many Sinnohan Iron Queens of the past were said to have used Empoleon as their right-hand Pokémon. And now he was her starter.

He needed a fitting name.

"Neptune," she said.

Piplup looked away, but he was obviously pleased.

Professor Rowan nodded his approval. "A fine name," he said as she keyed it into the ball. "And here is your Pokédex. I took the liberty of synchronizing it to your trainer account and ID already."

"Thank you," Dawn took the offered device. It was shiny like only new things could be, made out of some kind of light but firm metal painted red and black. The clamshell design of the Pokédex kept itself closed with some sort of magnetism, but opened easily with slight force.

"You will still have to register your fingerprints and activate the voice recognition, but otherwise, everything is in order," the professor took a sip from a travel mug on the desk, and then handed her a package. "This is the charger, as well as a portable electricity converter. It also contains five Poké balls and a TM for the move Return."

At her surprised look his beard quivered in amusement. "In your application you mentioned that you planned on becoming the Champion?"

She gave him a half-smile. Champion. The title's glory was amongst the veiled mystique of myths now, when the identity of the strongest person in the region was kept a secret.

It used to be otherwise. Before, the reigning Champion was the one who would make the decisions and call the big shots with most of the League affairs, as well as a lot of other things. The Champion was the unofficial leader of the people, the face of the region, the symbol of power. The Champion was the one revered. The Champion was the one who ruled, just like the ancient Iron Queens had in the past before the tradition was ended abruptly.

The powers of a Champion had slipped considerably in contemporary history, even before 11/9, but the significance of the position hadn't changed. A Champion, former or reigning, was still a one-man army that was easily a region's most valuable asset.

In A.S.99, the year Dawn had turned five, the world had been nearing the end of a war on a scale that had never been seen before. Orre's former government and the Orange Islands had declared war against Kanto two years prior, and the former Commonwealth pledged their alliance to Kanto in a show of gracious forgiveness.

Sinnoh had promised to help as well, partly because the region had been a part of the Commonwealth once, and partly because Orre's derisive attitude towards the Pokémon gods had always been a source of friction between Sinnoh and the odd region. The reigning Champion at the time, Victor Aguilera, Sinnoh's Seventeenth and reigning Champion, had pledged the services of seven hundred thousand League-related men and women, including infantry, engineers, naval officers, pilots and doctors.

Kanto thought it was too little, Sinnoh thought it was too much and old historical hatreds were sparked up. Victor, despite his bright smile and friendly attitude, wasn't popular for his choice, especially when the lack of volunteers led him to argue for conscription.

His choice started protests all across Sinnoh, but Stark Island – well-known by its nickname 'Battle Zone' – was particularly furious. Never having been close to mainland Sinnoh, its people resented the idea of having to fight a war they had no connection to. Combined with Victor being a devout follower of Palkia and Manaphy, and the Heatran supporters were incensed. They saw the residents of Stark Island being discriminated against, ignored and put down because they were the minority, because they were not a part of mainland Sinnoh – claims that may not have been far from the truth, considering the attitudes towards the general area of the island at the time.

From the sparks of conflict and tension, a group dubbing themselves Inferno rose. It was a group formed out of radical extremists who followed the words of Heatran to the very scratches made in the igneous stone plates from the time when Iron Queens ruled Sinnoh. They saw it as their duty to cleanse the region of the disgrace that was the Champion, just as Heatran had cleansed sins with her flames.

When Champion Victor and the Elite Four at the time – Apollo Lloyd, Will Gibson, Lark Rowan and Drina Cho – were visiting the Global Trade Station in Jubilife, members of Inferno struck. Ten men took in what was later reported to be fifty-four Graveller and six Golem into the building, and had them use explosion simultaneously. Most of the explosion had been focused around the central area where the Champion and the Elite Four were, but the collapsing building, the fire and the smoke had killed a thousand, forty-seven more with later injuries.

Five of the strongest trainers in the Sinnoh region, killed, just like that. Jubilife's darkest day, and arguably Sinnoh's as well.

As the region, suddenly thrown into chaos, struggled to regain footing in anarchic times, other extreme opposition groups began to gain their courage not only in Sinnoh, but in other regions. After Hoenn's regional professor was assassinated and a third attempt was made on his life, Hoenn's Ninth Champion Steven Stone resigned.

Impacts and repercussions from the bombing were definitely felt all over the world. Wallace, the Tenth Champion of Hoenn, had kept to a passive policy, remaining neutral in a region that was historically volatile due to religious conflicts. Every region's budget on League security doubled, at the very least. Lance, Champion of Johto, had been held back from engaging with Team Rocket a few years back when the organization had been running rampant in Kanto and Johto because Kanto's position had been vacant and Johto hadn't wanted to risk losing their own Champion.

And Sinnoh, as the only region that didn't hold League Tournaments every certain number of years to choose a Champion never revealed just who had taken over as Champion after Victor's death, nor the new Elite Four.

Essentially, they hid the Champion, the strongest piece on the board, the ace in the hole, the one-person army out of public sight.

Dawn didn't like that. Out of sight, out of mind. All the Champions had been loved – even Victor, whose popularity had been at an all-time low right before his assassination, had been forgiven and made a martyr, a beloved friend and a saint after his death. It was just what the position brought. The Champion's image was glorified; idolized; _worshipped_. When no one knew who the Champion was, there was no one to look to. No obstacle to overcome, no final frontier to confront.

There was no face to the person who was supposedly the strongest one within the region. It was a loss of connection between power and the rest of society.

But more than that, it was humiliating. The strong didn't have to hide. In fact, they _should not_ have had to hide. That only meant that Inferno – the bullies – won. Yes, Inferno had been psychically tracked and systematically taken down with a fervour that matched their devotion, but their legacy lived on as a reminder every day when Sinnoh's history classes could only name seventeen champions, when trainers had no role model that doubled as the great mountain to conquer, when the face of the region was a blank.

She planned on filling that blank with her face. She planned on changing everything. She planned on becoming Champion.

"I do," she replied.

The former Champion didn't smirk in amusement at the bold words – coincidentally, words he had heard from the boy before her. He didn't make sarcastic remarks, didn't give condescending advice and didn't talk about 'back in his day' when 'he was Champion'. Nathaniel Rowan, Tenth Champion of Sinnoh, only nodded in his stoic way. "Then perhaps it will help."

"Thank you." And she really was grateful. If she could – without appearing as a total weirdo or draining her bank account considerably – she would have showered him in a ton of Gracidea flowers.

Professor Rowan extended a hand. She took and shook it as firmly as she could. "Then good luck," he said. "Your journey starts now."

* * *

><p>Technically, her journey didn't start the moment Professor Rowan shook her hand and declared the beginning. First she had to head back home with her new Pokémon – <em>her<em> Pokémon – and let her mom know.

After being told, her mom smiled and nodded. Maybe it had only been a surprise to Dawn that the Pokémon given to test them would end up being their starters.

Deciding she was over-thinking it, she went upstairs to grab her things. All her bags were packed, so it was only a matter of changing out of the casual clothes she was wearing into more travel-suited attire. Her waterproof coat, approved of heartily by Uncle Palmer, was already packed in her bag, and it wasn't needed at the moment under the June sun, but she pulled on the League hat and a thin scarf. Then she pulled it off, stared at her reflection for a few seconds, debating the need to wear the tuque. Like all Leagues, the Sinnoh League gave out hats to trainers with the Poké ball logos, but most Sinnohan hats focused on keeping heat rather than offering protection from the sun due to climate and weather differences.

And as enthusiastic as she was to be heading out on her journey . . .

. . . what person wore a _tuque_ in the middle of June, journey or otherwise?

It wasn't like she lived in Snowpoint, the city of eternal snow or anything. Dawn stuffed the tuque into her bag and settled for straightening out the stray strands of hair disturbed by the knit hat being pulled on and off her head. Then, she grabbed her bag and headed down after taking a final sweeping look at her room.

Her mom was already pulling out her favourite foods and having Jackie set the table. Neptune eyed the spicy stew with vegetables and Swinub meat, and decided that he'd much prefer the sour Pokémon food.

Dawn inhaled the food, and Neptune mimicked her. "Careful not to choke," Johanna laughed when he did, and handed him some water. Juni – or Jumpy, as Dawn always called her – the Kanghaskan brought another plate of food, this one for her mother, as well as a muffin tin full of freshly baked goods. Behind her, Jackie followed with the pitcher of mixed berry juice.

Johanna sat down in her seat and began to eat. "I have to say, I kind of envy you, kiddo. Wish I could go instead."

"You could," she suggested, taking a large bite of the stew, savouring the meat and the vegetable. "I'm sure Professor Rowan would like the help," she added, voice muffled by the food in her cheeks.

Her mom laughed. "I'm joking, sweetie. You have fun! Just call, okay? And don't get into trouble."

"I smell muffins," Barry's mom said as she walked in. It didn't bother anyone that there was no knocking, no 'may I come in'. They were practically extended family, anyways. "Oh, and by the way, has Barry dropped by to bum some food off of you?"

"Hm? Oh, Barry? He's not here. Care for a pecha berry muffin?" Jackie picked up the plate and held it out towards their neighbour.

"I'd love one," Aunt Margie said as she plucked one from the Medicham's offering fingers. "But Barry! He just barges in, shouts that he's going on an adventure and runs out before I can get a word in. He's Palmer's son," she added. Whenever Barry did something 'good', Margaret claimed him as her son, but whenever he decided to be reckless he instantly became 'Palmer's son'. Barry found it hilarious rather than insulting that he was passed between his parents depending on what he did, and so did Dawn.

Dawn paused in her chewing, but continued on eventually. It figured that Barry would leave after being evaluated by Professor Rowan as soon as he could. They were both confident about being allowed to go just as their mothers were, but unlike Dawn and Barry the moms wished that the unavoidable could be avoided for just a bit longer. The blonde woman's face grew a little wistful. "I've been meaning to give him something . . . ."

Dawn swallowed. "I'll take it." Knowing Barry, he wouldn't come back home unless he had earned at least one badge. It would be easier and faster for her to catch up to him and then deliver the package.

"Thank you, Dawn," Barry's mom looked a bit more relieved now.

And so, Dawn shoved the additional weight of a thin package into her bag. It was wrapped, but it was also thin and wide. Like a book, maybe. Not worth accessing storage for. "Well, I should get going too," she stood up and shouldered her bag. After a thought, Dawn took a muffin – oran berry – and chewed before she stood up and packed some to take on her journey. She stuffed them into the physical compartment of her bag, not accessing the item storage technology that allowed her to carry most of her travel gear in the same fashion as a Poké ball could carry a giant Wailord. She'd probably end up eating them all by the time they got to Sandgem.

Then, she was ready to go. "Bye, mom," she let herself get engulfed in a hug and photographed. She had to pull on her hat for the sake of the League symbol being in the picture, and then fix her stray strands again, but it was fine. "I promise I'll call every day."

The coordinator sniffed, eyes glittering with proud tears. "Just remember to drop in every now and then – and if you don't come home for winter I'll burn your old journals instead of a Yule log."

Snickering slightly, Dawn adjusted the straps of her bag one final time and skipped out of the door after another large hug.

Johanna shook her head, putting the muffins aside so they would cool down. "She thinks I'm joking," she said to Margaret, who laughed breathlessly. The two women shuffled a bit, suddenly far too aware that their children were gone because they had grown up.

It was a hollow moment for them both.

* * *

><p>Ever since she was five years old, she had kept some sort of a journal. In her earlier years it had been a diary with all the pink fluff and childish words that made her either cringe or laugh while reading through careful cursive, but had progressively evolved into a log before turning into a report of a sort on everything and anything important that happened, as well as an extensive analysis of her day-to-day life and a planner for her plans, both present and future ones.<p>

As fate would have it, she had filled the last page of her previous journal up yesterday, writing about Piplup's – Neptune's – behaviour. Dawn dropped by the Sandgem Mart, and picked up a spiral-bound notebook with a hard and plain cover. In addition to that, she spent a quarter of the money she had deposited into her trainer debit card buying potions, antidotes and paralyze heals. With no badges to her name, she couldn't yet buy more advanced Pokémon-related merchandise, but even basic medicine was important, and the professor had been generous enough to give her Poké balls. They wouldn't be enough, but it did allow her to use the money for something else.

And speaking of Poké balls . . . .

According to her Pokédex, which helped her search for a lot of information, the Pokémon in this general area were fairly common ones, seen all through the Sinnoh region. Lots of trainers used them in the basic and first stages of evolution because they were easy to catch, and easy to train. With the exception of a water type, any of them would have been a helpful member on her team. Maybe not her _main_ team, but helpful now for sure.

"Ready?" Dawn said to Neptune before she stepped into the grass of Route 202, entering what was marked as wild territory, her Piplup keeping an eye out.

In the middle of the route, the grass in front of them rustled. Dawn stopped, and Neptune followed her example. The two of them watched as a blue and black-furred Pokémon with bits of gold burst through and skidded to a stop in front of them.

A Shinx. Common enough in the lower and middle western parts of the Sinnoh region, but they evolved into Luxio, then Luxray – powerful Pokémon. And they were electric types, too.

Their commonness would mean that she would get a chance to catch one later in her journey, but the Pokémon in Twinleaf's general area were weaker and younger, and therefore easier to catch, train and teach. Also, if the Shinx was weaker, then it would be less of a threat to her directly.

Yes, she wanted one. And yes, she wanted to catch the one in front of her. Dawn liked the way the Shinx stood, even if she was intimidated by the stance and the glare being shot her way. She guessed it to be the Shinx's ability that was causing a surge of approval for flight rather than fight.

But flight wasn't an option. "Go, Neptune," Dawn ordered, and it was the first time they were fighting another Pokémon with his name.

Neptune ran forwards, ignoring the intimidate, and began to pound away at the Shinx. It wasn't a ham-fisted punch that could tear through concrete, but it was still an attack, and the Shinx didn't appreciate being pounded on the head over and over again even if it was weakened. It threw its body against Neptune, trying to shove him away to gain some room.

That would have been her disadvantage in a normal battle. Not here. Neptune allowed that to happen – and when the Shinx drew back in surprise at the lack of resistance, she threw the ball she had been holding in her hands. The sphere opened and absorbed the Shinx, then closed and fell to the ground where it began to rock back and forth as the chemicals within fought to tame the creature inside. Neptune backed up slightly just as the Poké ball shook one last time and let out a ding of confirmation.

Dawn checked on its stats. Female, low on health with the ability 'intimidate'. No rabies or other troublesome diseases.

She let Shinx out. The chemicals inside the ball had done their job and the Shinx was calmed, more likely to be accepting. Dawn reached out slowly, hand constantly in Shinx's view – she had been wild until half a minute ago, after all, and it was better safe than sorry. Neptune chirped a few things that made the Shinx relax and allowed her to give her a pet, even if she tensed up at her touch and kept squirming to see her hand.

"You're a fierce girl, aren't you?" Dawn asked the Shinx. Another thing about Shinx – they were naturally social creatures. While Luxio and Luxray tended to discriminate and care only for their own unless otherwise brought up, Shinx could connect well to anyone once they were past the initial attack mode.

That was partly why she wanted a Shinx, rather than a Starly or a Bidoof. The mascot of her school in Twinleaf had been a Shinx wearing an everstone collar. She'd done a project on them once; she had more interest in them than the other indigenous species around the Lake Verity area.

Barry had actually gotten interested in that project. Having picked Starly, he declared that he would make a model demonstrating the traits of the family, and then had put more work than she had ever seen him put into anything to the mobile that now hung in the back of the Science classroom.

If he remembered that project, then he either was planning on catching, or had already caught a Starly.

Dawn offered an oran berry muffin, going with the safely bland flavour bread. After she found out just what kinds of food the Shinx liked, she would buy her something, but until then she'd stick to the safe side.

And, speaking of the Shinx . . . . "I'll name you Sekhmet," Dawn said. "Now let's get you healed up."

When she reached out to stroke her slowly, Sekhmet tensed again. Neptune chirped a warning that had her lowering her hackles, but she was still tense as she let Dawn run light fingers through the fur on her head.

* * *

><p>After teaching Sekhmet the orders and names for different moves – not a hard task, seeing as she had only fully mastered tackle – they went to test out battles north of Sandgem, because the Pokémon on this route were pretty weak overall.<p>

Fighting the wild Pokémon, Dawn found that while Sekhmet could wear most of them down with tackle, sometimes she had to switch in for the stronger Neptune, who managed to finish off whatever was left. When things got too much they all ran back to the Pokémon Center in Sandgem and got themselves healed, enjoying the absence of a line-up. After every healing, Dawn took the chance to pet Sekhmet. She demonstrated with Neptune first, and the Piplup showed signs of genuinely enjoying the treatment. He still had to warn her to not bite or attack Dawn, though.

So far, Neptune was ahead of Sekhmet, but the Shinx was strong. Far stronger than the other Shinx on the route, if the way she knocked them out was any indicator for her level of power.

She would go far. Again, catching her had been an excellent choice.

They were now wandering down Route 202, further than they had before. "Hey you!"

She looked up at a youngster who emerged from between the trees. "Hey back," she said to him.

"Hey back back," he countered, but continued on before she could counter his counter. "You're a trainer, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm a trainer, too! Let's battle!"

It was rather sudden, but Dawn motioned Sekhmet up. "You're on."

The other boy sent out a Starly, who squawked when it laid its eyes on a snarling Sekhmet. "Tackle," she commanded.

"Hawkeye, you too!"

It really did look like she had an advantage over him. Starly wasn't able to attack as efficiently as it could have due to Sekhmet's intimidate, and at this rate they could wear him down faster than he could.

"Don't give up! Quick attack!"

The starly made a few motions in the air, each getting faster, until all of a sudden there was a brownish blur smashing directly into Sekhmet's side. Her Shinx flew, and hit a tree.

"Mespirit!" Dawn's hands flew to her mouth. Sekhmet had just been healed and at the top of her health at the beginning of the battle, but what if she had broken her spine?

"Holy -" the other guy muttered as she ran towards her Shinx, praying to Mespirit for her to be alright.

Sekhmet was unconscious – not seriously injured, as far as she could tell. Dawn quickly returned her, and was relieved to see that the Poké ball didn't report anything wrong with her other than her unconscious state. "Neptune, revenge kill!"

"Hey now," said the youngster nervously, seeing the cold look on Neptune's face. Such an intimidating look was a shame on a Pokémon as cute as a Piplup – it deserved to grace the countenance of a cold-blooded killer. "Let's not do anything rash here."

"It's an expression," she huffed in mild annoyance at him, partly for Sekhmet's KO'd state and partly for him ruining her drama. "He's not going to actually kill your Starly. Neptune, pound the bird!"

The Starly tried to fight back. It really did. It used growl to soften impact and put in a few tackles of its own, but it was no match for Neptune. After winning, he let out a crow and nearly choked as bubbles trickled out of his beak. Her Pokédex and Poké ball, when checked, told her that Neptune had learned a new move. "Sweet!" she said as she collected her winnings from the other guy. "Okay see you bye!"

Then she hightailed it back to the center in Sandgem, where there were only a few lounging trainers and an idle nurse that could immediately look to Sekhmet.

After Sekhmet was healed, she insisted on walking ahead of them. It looked like she wasn't happy that Neptune had gotten even stronger than before; more so because he had gotten stronger after taking out the opponent she had fallen to. The next wild Pokémon they ran into – a wild Shinx – she glared at it so hard it winced and got knocked out easily. According to her Pokédex and the data on the ball, Sekhmet had learned leer. It looked more like glaring daggers to Dawn.

The wild Shinx they ran into after that nearly burst out into tears and almost seemed happy when Sekhmet knocked it out.

"You're doing great," Dawn told her, because she was. It looked like she had calmed down, too.

And then they ran into a wild Starly.

It might have been funny on a comedy show or maybe a cartoon video online. The scene – had it been fiction produced for giggles – would have been titled something like 'Crazy Shinx' or 'Electric Type goes Wild Charging'. It was not funny in real life as Sekhmet literally got into rage mode and nearly ripped the innocent bird apart.

The growl the Starly tried to use didn't seem to placate her at all, and Dawn had to recall her to make her stop. Neptune put the poor Starly out of miserable consciousness with a neat bubble – his new move – and they hurried along, trying to get Sekhmet out of the 'anger zone'.

"It looks like Sekhmet has a grudge against Starly in general now," she said when they were out of the tall grass and her second Pokémon was walking out with them again. Dawn made a mental note to record this grudge-holding behaviour and look up other cases to compare them. She hadn't run into that kind of behaviour data when she had done the school project.

Neptune chirped in agreement.

This, though, also meant that she couldn't catch a Starly for the time being and expect to be able to use it on her team. A shame, since Staraptor were brilliant, brave birds.

With a weakness to electric attacks. She supposed she had the better end of the stick with a potentially powerful future Luxray in hand that could rip apart any member of the Starly family.

Still, it wouldn't do to have a strong Pokémon with no control.

Sekhmet twisted to see just what her hand was going to do when Dawn reached out again, but let the girl pet her without a warning from Neptune this time.

That was a pretty good landmark. Dawn took a picture of her two Pokémon, and sent it to Lyra with a message – 'started my journey!' – attached.

Come to think of it, her friend in Johto had caught an electric type as her first capture as well . . . .

* * *

><p>Barry ran all the way to Jubilife, laughing. Champ, unlike the story where the Turtwig was slow, kept up with him easily, and didn't even look particularly out of breath when he finally stopped. "You're really tough, aren't you buddy?" Barry asked, crouching down to pat him on his head. The grass type seemed to enjoy it when he gently scratched the area around the single twig on the top of his skull. "Yeah, you're going to be a wall impossible to pass by when you grow up."<p>

Champ tipped his head. "Like a tank," Barry continued on, mad-libbing and filling in Champ's words for him. "And you're strong, too, so you'll take any hit and them hit them back harder. So when we're champions, we'll just blow everyone out of the water."

The grass type gave it some thought before lumbering away from the city and towards the grass. "Why?" he asked. Champ made a few gestures with his head. "You want . . . food? No? Another teammate?"

Champ nodded.

Well, as awesome as it would have been to become Champion of Sinnoh with only one Pokémon – or even better, defeat his dad with only Champ at his side – he guessed that his starter had a point. "You've got a good point there," he said. "But first, let me go and buy some Poké balls. Then we'll go and see if anyone wants to join us. Sound good to you?"

It did.

So Barry ran and bought a few spheres – five from the professor plus the first two he bought himself made seven, and seven was a lucky number – and then they spent the rest of the day searching for a teammate worthy enough to join them. Wild Pokémon shied away from their combined awesomeness (and Champ tackling them) until they ran into a large Starly, much larger than the others of its specie they'd seen so far. Just one look at its determined, sharp eyes and both Barry and Champ could tell that this one was a fighter.

Besides, he knew that members of the Starly family were some of the best birds around.

"Hey you!" he shouted at the bird. The Starly, rather than flying away in a start, only stared back in a challenge. "Join us!"

The Starly eyed them a bit more before fluttering down, facing Champ. The grass turtle grinned and stepped forwards, ready to fight.

Barry readied one of the empty Poké balls as Champ began to rush forwards.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm aiming for weekly updates, but if I'm busy it may be two weeks.<p>

Barry - some of you may be wondering why he isn't going around fining everyone. Part of that's due to me finding Pearl from Pokémon Adventures so awesome. He only threatened to fine Platinum when she was on the verge of giving up, and he looked like the boss he is. I don't want such an awesome motivational line to be made into a joke, so I guess I'm 'saving' it for those kinds of situations.

And yes, some of the sequence of events have changed, for the sake of making it flow a little better. There will be more changes in the future, as a heads up.

The references to Lyra are going to be a story on its own. It's not published yet (not finished writing) and won't be for a while. I hope to get it, or some other novelization up before Titanium's finished, but it's set around the same TF canon as Titanium, and in the same universe.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and added to favourites.


	4. Crossroad of Time

A.S.107

June 24th

_I got a free watch today. Tomorrow, I'll visit the memorial._

* * *

><p>The best way to get over anger was to confront it and let all the steam out. Or so Dawn believed, because that method had worked for her after visiting the dojo about a hundred times to break that one stubborn board with her bare fist back in grade two when she had been taking martial arts.<p>

Therefore, in order for Sekhmet to get over her anger with Starly in general, she'd have to simply find some more, win against them and let the grudge go. After, of course, Dawn gave her a lecture on how she had to curb her viciousness and not go psycho on every Starly because that might cause some serious trouble, but the lecture wouldn't be enough to let out all the frustrations.

The problem was, they didn't run into another Starly in the wild as they wandered around in the wild area around Sandgem for hours. Bidoof? Sure. Shinx? Absolutely – the males, especially, were razed to the ground at Sekhmet's mighty and terrifying leer as their rivalry sealed their own doom. And as the sun began to set, the Kricketot began to regret coming out as they were met and were defeated by a very frustrated Shinx.

But no Starly, not a single one. And without any of the other birds around Sekhmet grew moodier. She began lashing out at all the other wild Pokémon they ran into, diving in recklessly while Dawn tried to give commands. Neptune found this all rather funny and so wasn't much of a help in calming her down.

She contemplated throwing them all into the beach south of Sandgem, but that was opposite of the direction she wanted to go to. Not that she would allow herself to get to Jubilife without first getting her Pokémon under some semblance of order and control, but retracing steps and wasting her time to head all the way to the other side of Sandgem for the sake of visiting the beach seemed like a waste of time.

Especially if it was to throw her Pokémon into the ocean. Not when she'd worked so hard to finally get them.

In the last battle with another wild Shinx, Sekhmet was so enraged that she kept on missing her attacks while the other Shinx landed its own attacks with precise, careful hits. Eventually, Sekhmet fainted. Neptune finished the other Shinx off, and made sure she was safe while running back to Sandgem.

After being healed back from fainting for the second time that day, Sekhmet was a lot calmer. Perhaps she had realized that it wasn't quite right or nice to lash out at an entire species of – very common and numerous, might she add – Pokémon just because of a grudge against one member. Or perhaps she didn't want to revenge kill all of her own species.

Either way, she was calm now. And calm meant that she could fight without being volatile. Dawn had a talk with her that Neptune occasionally interjected comments into, and Sekhmet remained calm. They managed to get down one-third of Route 202, challenge and win against a female trainer before night fully fell.

While it was June and therefore warm enough to sleep outside with a sleeping bag, the thought of camping just on the borders of a town seemed rather ridiculous.

Also, while she was no stranger to 'roughing' it, thanks to being dragged along on Barry and Palmer and frequent camping trips, she wasn't a fan of outdoor sleeping. When she could, she would take the Pokémon Center's services.

"I'm not camping outside," Dawn said flatly, and her two Pokémon didn't disagree, so the three of them trudged through the darkness back to Sandgem where the nurse now knew them by sight.

She probably could have gone back to Twinleaf. It would have been a lot more comfortable there, sleeping in her own bed and all. But if she did, Dawn thought that the chances of her actually leaving might wither away as she made no progress at all. If she was doing this, she was going to do this properly.

"One badge," Dawn said to herself, making a promise. "At least get one badge before I visit home again."

Neptune poked at her leg with his flipper. Dawn guessed that he was telling her to sleep and stop keeping him awake. She turned the lights off and crawled into the thin sheets spread on the hard bed. It made her long for her warm home and soft bed, but she fell asleep soon enough, with Neptune and Sekhmet curling up against her for warmth.

* * *

><p>Starting out early in the morning after an extra-long breakfast where she figured out how to get Pokémon to order things they were partial to, they got through Route 202 – with only one trainer challenging them – and set foot in Jubilife before noon. And somehow, in the biggest city in Sinnoh, they managed to run into a person they knew.<p>

"Hey, Lucas," she waved when she saw the familiar bread-shaped hat of his.

"Dawn, good to see you again." He was less awkward with her now than he had been yesterday, but still very formal and business-like, especially business-like regarding the Pokédex. Maybe he wasn't much of a conversation person, and was defaulting on something they had in common in order to not let the chat fall into awkward silence and shuffling. "How many Pokémon have you caught?"

Well, between trying and failing to stop a mad Shinx out for what would most likely be considered war crimes against all Starly and a Piplup who found his teammate's genocidal attempts funny, one.

That was what she thought but didn't say. "One," she said. "Meet Sekhmet."

He waved politely at the Shinx, but turned his attention back to her. "You might want to catch some more," he recommended. "The more there are, the harder it gets to look after them all, but in the end they're all worth it-"

Sekhmet's facial expression turned irritated and before Dawn could stop her, the Shinx rammed her body into his leg. Lucas fell flat on his behind because of the impact. "Ahh!"

"Mespirit," Dawn groaned. Every trainer knew – or should know – the rule about captured Pokémon attacking humans. Unless they were extenuating circumstances, the Pokémon was treated as a criminal and could even be put down. "Are you okay? _Sekhmet_!"

"I'm fine," Lucas waved it off, apparently used to such physical treatment from his experience working with Pokémon at the lab. "Maybe she mistook what I said as me calling her weak and you needing 'more power'."

Dawn thought that what he said was a disturbingly good profile of her Pokémon. "What are you, the Pokémon whisperer?"

Sekhmet gave Lucas a leer and smirked when he flinched. "I'm just saying," he continued on. "It'll be hard to look after a lot of them for sure, but more Pokémon would mean that there's going to be that much more joy in your life."

"That's . . ." she thought before saying the next words. "Kind of cheesy."

Lucas deflated slightly. "Is it?"

"Yes. Very."

That had been an invitation to friendly teasing, but Lucas clearly didn't see or take it as such. "Oh. Well, in that case maybe you'd prefer studying about Pokémon instead. Have you been to Jubilife's trainer school?"

She had, but it had been around two years ago and her memory was a bit fuzzy, so being the concerned ally he was he offered to escort her there. Somehow, he managed to navigate through the tall buildings and busy streets to reach a familiar school with the Poké ball logo.

"This brings back both good and bad memories," she sighed, and then turned her head to make a face of confusion when Lucas jostled her.

"Sorry," he muttered even when it wasn't quite his fault. The blame lay in the hands of the man in the long brown trench coat who had bumped into him. "Hey – Mr. Looker?"

Brown trench coat guy froze in surprise. Then, said brown trench coat guy grabbed her and Lucas by their wrists and yanked them aside, to the small cramped space between the school building and a neighbouring establishment.

Sekhmet lunged towards the guy, but said guy simply evaded the charging tackle her Shinx threw at him. "Who are you?" he hissed to Lucas, but his eyes flitted to Dawn's direction as well. There was still daylight, and she saw his face clearly. His face was cleanly shaven, thin with a serious look. He couldn't have been too old – Dawn guessed maybe late twenties, early thirties at most – but he already had lines etched around his dark eyes and a few strands of white in his hair. The thickness of his eyebrows almost made the total effect comic, but his obvious seriousness right now offset that look pretty well.

"Er," Lucas raised his hands slightly in surrender. He glanced back at her and it was obvious that he regretted recognizing this guy. "I'm Lucas. One of the lab assistants at Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem . . . ?" he let the sentence trail off into a question. After all, they were in an otherwise unoccupied alley with a stranger who seemed rather wary at best.

Luckily, that was enough for the guy Lucas had called 'Looker'. He relaxed, and his stern face turned quite a bit friendlier. "Ah," he said sheepishly. "I have not recognized you. My sincerest apologies, Lucas. I hope you can forgive me for the misunderstanding."

Now that he wasn't hissing, Dawn could tell that he spoke with a soft, lilting accent. Nothing too harsh or strong enough to distort and confuse the meaning of his words, but certainly present. Kalosian, maybe.

But as for what he was saying, well, Dawn was confused. "Umm . . . ."

Looker looked at her as well, curiosity clear. "And this is?"

Lucas made a snap decision. "This is Dawn. She's also one of Professor Rowan's assistants."

Which wasn't a lie, because the whole point on her journey was to help the professor's research out. The knowledge did startle her, though. Her, the Regional Pokémon Professor's assistant. He probably had scores of them –hundreds, more likely – but it was still quite a special kind of thought.

Looker made a few circles in the air with his right index finger. "We have not been acquainted?" he asked, and shook her hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Dawn."

"Same, er . . . ." Was Looker really his name? It was a weird one, for sure.

"He's a member of Interpol," Lucas told her at the same time Looker spoke. "Please, call me Looker."

The two guys stopped talking and looked at each other, Lucas with apologetic sheepishness, Looker with surprise. "I suppose there's no harm in telling one of Professor Rowan's assistants," Looker said slowly. "But please, Dawn – keep it a secret."

The best thing to do in a situation like this was probably to walk away and forget that she had heard anything.

She was curious, though. "You're Interpol," Dawn said.

Interpol. The International Police. A law-enforcing organization that existed beyond the boundaries set by regional pride and cultural differences, it was first conceived in the thoughts of Drake Aragon, Seventh Champion of Hoenn. A 'trial' version of the organization had been launched nearly a decade after Drake had introduced it under the name of the Global Police, but they had failed when war broke out with Orre. It was only in the Goldenrod Conferences that the bones of Drake's ideas were structured and laid out into what was the International Police. Interpol would – in theory – catch criminals that abused customs to 'get away with it' and be big enough to take on the big bosses.

So far, Interpol was working better than its predecessor. They hadn't done anything with Hoenn's situation a few years back, when the entire region had nearly broken out into civil war in the struggle between Team Magma and Team Aqua and had actually come close to being destroyed by awakened gods, but they had stepped in to help with Team Rocket in Kanto after the princess of the Sevii Islands and her fiancé had been threatened during the invasion of Saffron City.

Interpol was young, but beginning to carve out a niche in the world for themselves. It was working as well as a young organization in a rapidly changing world could.

The question was, what was an agent of Interpol doing in Jubilife, slumming around? Dawn doubted that he was on vacation – he wouldn't have introduced himself as International Police if that was so – and she couldn't think of any other reasons why he would decide to hang around Jubilife while still working, except that he was on some kind of duty. That much was obvious, from the way he had dragged the two of them into the alley to avoid being seen or overheard.

Dawn gestured, and Sekhmet returned near her feet. The Shinx didn't exactly play cuddly Skitty and rub her body against her booted ankles, but she did take a firm stance nearby. She had bonded pretty well to Dawn after seeing the benefits of being a trained Pokémon (such as food). "Is Looker your actual name?"

He shook his head. "A codename," he explained. "And it is better that way."

She wasn't going to argue. Instead, Dawn continued on. "What are you doing in Sinnoh? I thought the Interpol HQ was in the Ranger Union."

Looker studied her face, and Dawn had the feeling that he was committing it to memory. "Did the professor warn you about thieves?"

A bit taken aback at the question, Dawn shook her head to give the honest answer, even if she considered the question redundant. Who _didn't_ know to be careful of thieves? "Hm," Looker said. "Well, then. I'm sure you've guessed, but I'm in Sinnoh on assignment. There have been . . . unsettling reports about a criminal organization in the region, stealing Pokémon and disobeying laws."

"A criminal organization?" There hadn't been anything like that in the news. Dawn leaned in to listen better. "Like Team Rocket and Magma?"

Looker gave a shrug of his trench-coat wearing shoulders. "I'm afraid that the investigation is still in the beginning stages," he said. "But these are heinous people, yes. Criminals that must be caught for the sake of society's safety."

Words she could wholeheartedly support and believe in. Dawn nodded, trying to encourage him to continue speaking.

Lucas shuffled on his feet. Looker caught the action and gave a friendly smile. "But it seems that I've been holding you both up!" he exclaimed. "Please, don't let me bother you. I shall simply be on my way, and let you continue on with your journeys. The golden ages of youth, after all, must not be wasted in the presence of a foolish one who should have spent his own times better."

He leaned slightly back from them, body already postured to be ready to leave the two of them. "May I request that you pretend to not recognize me," he said lightly, "should our paths cross once more? I must be vigilant while on duty, you understand . . . ."

Looker was ready to flee the scene any second now. "What if we see some suspicious people?" Dawn asked him, hoping to make him continue.

The tall man gave her a polite smile. "Then, first, please alert the local police," he said. "But," he added when he saw the disappointed look on her face. "Should I happen to be present, then please."

It wasn't like she knew how to contact him or anything – of course it would be when he was nearby. Dawn just nodded and gave him a bright smile, and then he was on his own way.

Dawn and Lucas stepped back into the well-lit city again, and watched until the brown trench coat disappeared into the waves of moving people. "Interpol, huh?" Dawn asked Lucas.

He kicked at a pebble absent-mindedly. "He came in to meet the professor one day. They talked for a long time in his office before Professor Rowan introduced him to everyone at the lab and had him talk about how to act when faced with criminals after research information."

A security talk? That didn't seem like what Interpol did. Sure, Professor Rowan was an important person and Sinnoh's Pokémon Professor, but his safety, as well as the security of his research should have lain in the hands of the Sinnoh League. "What did he say you should do?" she asked, interest even more peaked now. There had been a time when she had dreamed of joining Interpol, chasing down bad guys and crushing them before they could hurt people. It had been when she had been eleven years old, beginning to realize that her dreams of becoming Champion might not be possible and a backup plan had to be made.

Barry had snapped her out of that slight depression, of course, with his bravado. There had always been something about her blond friend that made his very presence energizing. Just listening to his bold talks and loud voice made Dawn feel stronger and surer in her own mind. Her plan, her path was all through the same road. Champion – and then, the backup plan was Elite Four or Gym Leader, just like Blue Oak of Kanto. She knew she could accomplish it.

Lucas adjusted his hat. "Just that we shouldn't incense any people trying to threaten us and always try talking. You know, 'I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to'. Agent Looker said that the people that might bother us will mostly be cowards, and when they don't see any fear from intimidation attempts they'll get scared themselves and leave us alone."

So someone was after the professor's research?

"Probably," Lucas admitted when she asked. Now, the two of them were in the school. Barry had indeed signed in at the guest trainer log, so they were making their way down to the drop-in classroom. Hopefully he was still here. "Which is why most of us don't actually carry around any important papers, files or drives unless we absolutely have to. Here we are."

He didn't come with her, and excused himself to work on tagging the local Pokémon. "Good luck on your journey," he said as a farewell.

Dawn wished him something similar, and then she grinned when she caught the sight of the light blond hair that defied every rule of hair in unwritten existence.

Barry stood at the front of the classroom filled with uneven desk rows and lounging trainers. He was staring at the board with enough concentration to bore two holes with the sheer force of his eyes alone. That was just how he was. In things he considered trivial or boring he couldn't give a second's worth of focus for, but for important, interesting things he could go on for hours without budging a muscle.

"Barry!" she called from the back of the room in a volume just a notch above the inside voice level. Not like anyone here cared – they were just hanging around, playing cards or trading items.

He whipped his head back with a mirrored grin. "Yo, Dawn!"

She knew just by the way he was grinning that he was proud of something. When she got closer he practically stabbed the blackboard filled with neatly written explanations about statuses with his finger. "I memorized _everything_ on this board," he bragged. "Just quiz me if you don't believe me; I'll get it all right."

"I believe you," Dawn said.

"Mm-hm," Barry swaggered slightly. "After all, it's a trainer's job to make sure their precious Pokémon aren't hurt in battle. And that's what I am – a trainer."

"A good one," she added for his sake.

"A good one," he agreed before finally remembering his manners. "So, what brings you here?"

"Excellent question." Dawn dug through her bag and pulled out a slightly rumpled package. "Your mom told me to give this to you when I saw you."

"Mom? Why didn't she give this to me when I was at home?"

Dawn snickered. "Because you ran out before she could say anything."

"Oh. So what is this, anyways?" easily distracted as usual, Barry tore the package open and took out two books. He flipped through the pages, finding illustrations on routes, cities and towns. "Hey, it's a map of Sinnoh!"

Dawn touched her pocket, feeling her own worn and battered copy that she constantly consulted whenever she planned out her journey. Hers was just a single page, showing the basic outline of the region.

Barry glanced at her, and then he shoved his hand into her coat pocket – "Hey!" – and yanked it out. It ripped slightly, the creases that had been folded and refolded countless times too frail to last under his rough treatment. "Hey!" she protested again.

"Man, Dawn," he said. "_What_ are you going to do with a map like this? You're going to get lost in the first three seconds."

"Will not," she grumbled, but she knew he was right. She had no sense of direction whatsoever.

Barry handed her one of his books. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to.

"You sure?" she asked him even as she took it.

"I have two," he shrugged. "And you probably need it more than I do."

Which was true. Even when she had been the caretaker of the two, he had always been the one to keep track of directions and locations. Perhaps this was why Aunt Margaret had given him two, so he could give her one.

Barry flipped a few pages through his map before he stopped on Oreburgh. "That's my next location," he said, yanking the straps of his backpack onto his shoulder. "See ya."

"You're leaving?" she asked.

"Well, sure," he shrugged. "My first gym badge is waiting for me there. Can't keep it waiting too long, you know? Want to come with?"

A tempting offer, but Dawn had to decline. "I'm going to train a bit further," she explained.

Barry rubbed his chin, just like his father did. "If you're going to stay," he said, "then you should battle the trainers here. Get stronger and all, you hear? Otherwise, you're not a rival fit for me."

Dawn raised both her eyebrows, unable to raise only one. "Who won the battle we had?"

"That was a fluke!" he screeched. "I'll win next time, you hear?"

Same old Barry. She smirked at him. "Sure. Good luck on your badge."

"Same. Okay, see ya!"

And then a blond streak shot through the door and he was gone.

Since both Lucas and Barry had advised that she give the school a post-trainerdom whirl, she stuck around. When she took a pop quiz on statuses and found that she knew everything, the teacher – who had finally slunk inside to check on one-day trainers – suggested that she battle some of the kids in the regular class who had yet to start their journey. The students there were obviously eager to try out tactics and battle items in actual battle, and she found it a nice way of training not only Sekhmet and Neptune, but also herself so she would get used to being in trainer battles, even if they were simple ones.

"You're strong," the girl with the Bidoof said, recalling her fainted Pokémon. Next to her, the boy with the Starly nodded. "Even with the X Attack . . . ."

Dawn shrugged. "It's only because we managed to knock you out before you could fully use your item," she said, patting Neptune and trying to make him a more humble winner.

Sekhmet licked her paw and grinned.

Both of them didn't really need to be healed, but just in case Dawn dropped by the center. "Behave," she warned them as they were recalled. The nurse smiled at that as she took them away on a tray.

After a ten minute wait, Neptune and Sekhmet were as good as new. "Let's get going, then," she told them. "I think we have about three more hours before the sun sets, and –"

And she wanted to get a bit more training done before night fell, but she never got around to saying it out loud. "You _think_ you have about three more hours?!"

At the outraged squawk, Dawn stumbled in shock.

A chubby man with a rather cool set of mustachios stomped her way. "Child," he said to her. "Do you mean to say that you don't have the time on you?"

"Umm . . . ."

Mustachio-man grabbed her hands and checked her wrists, bare of everything except a bracelet of stone beads, with a glare to shame an angry Staraptor. "I say, I say!" he said. "This is most unusual."

"What's most unusual?" she asked when he released her hands – with a flair that suggested disgust, to add. She washed her hands and applied lotion to them regularly, and didn't find them disgusting to the point of offense. In fact, she didn't find them disgusting at all.

"You are a trainer, yes?"

Dawn looked down at the two Pokémon with her. What possibly gave her away? "Yes."

"Yet you have no Pokétch!" he boomed in her face, the whites of his eyes visible due to his rage. "A Pokémon trainer without a Pokétch is like pasta without sauce! Like candy without sugar! Like . . . like . . ."

"Peanut butter without jelly?"

"Precisely!" Dawn flinched when a fleck of spit landed on her cheek and discreetly tried to wipe it away with the edge of her coat's sleeve. Too absorbed in his dramatics, mustachio-man didn't notice. "I assume, my dear, that you _do_ know what a Pokétch is?"

"Yes," she felt like she needed to add something, to be polite. "The ads are cool."

"Ah, yes, the commercials. I directed them myself – but _that is not the point_! A trainer without a Pokétch!" he took in a deep, rattling breath before letting it all out in a furious bellow. "This is an _outrage_! A gross error of the cruel universe! And," he dropped his voice. "It must be fixed."

Dawn tried to break it down to him gently. "I'd buy one if I could, but they're kind of expensive and I'd rather hold my funds back so I can help my Pokémon."

Not a lie. She _would_ rather use money she had for the sake of her Pokémon rather than a fancy wristwatch. Her mother could always get her one, as could the rest of the family, but Dawn wasn't partial to the idea of her family bankrolling her through. Neither was Johanna, nor the Steele family, famous for not bankrolling their training family members through everything. To even start thinking about getting the Steele monetary support behind her she'd have to earn six badges.

"No need for money, my dear! There is a week-long campaign going on in Jubilife right this moment! As the president of the company that created the Pokétch, I extend my heartfelt invitations for you to join! In fact, I _insist_ that you partake in it!"

Which was how she ended up on a manhunt for clowns. "Why clowns?" she asked her Pokémon as they wandered down the streets of Jubilife. "I mean, sure, they stick out, but why clowns? Why not people in Pokémon cosplay or something?"

Luckily, she didn't have the clown phobia and didn't fear any harlequin, even when they were dressed in a gross shade of yellow like the one that stood next to the mart. "Hello, hello, you found me!" the clown, sounding much like mustachio-head-corp to her. "Before I give you the coupon, you must correctly answer a question! When Pokémon fight and win a battle, they get experience. True or false?"

"True."

"AB-SO-LUTELY CORRECT!" he bellowed and she flinched as, for the second time that day, someone's spittle fell on her cheek. "Have a coupon!"

She only read what was on it after there was a safe distance of five buildings between her and the loud clown. "Coupon One," she read aloud. "Two more to go."

The next clown was in front of the Jubilife TV station, juggling a few Poké balls. "Oh, hi!" he smiled at her, which proved to be a mistake as several of them fell onto his head. Onlookers laughed while he chuckled sheepishly. "Guess that was a mistake," he said as Dawn helped him collect them. "So, you here for the promo event?"

"Yes. Already have one coupon."

"Great. Here's my quiz for you. Can Pokémon hold items?"

"They can." To verify her answer she tossed a Poké ball at Neptune, who caught it easily and spun it on the tip of his beak to show off. A small girl clapped as she and her parents walked by.

"Wasn't quite what I was going for, but works for me," the clown handed her a coupon.

"Thank you."

As she walked away, Dawn flipped the coupon to read . . . "Coupon Three?"

She must have missed a clown somewhere between. Dawn doubled back with Neptune and Sekhmet a few times before a flash of the gross yellow caught her eyes. Going to the western part of the city, she found the third – or second – harlequin in front of the company, munching on a hot dog while rummaging through a rather cool Crobatman lunchbox. "Oh hi," he said when he noticed her standing there with the coupons in her hand. "Here for the campaign, I see."

Dawn realized that she was witnessing someone ditch work for lunch. Normally she would have reprimanded or at least reported him discreetly, but . . . .

That Crobatman lunchbox. Someone who loved Crobatman even in his adulthood couldn't possibly be a bad person. "Yes."

"Okay," he dusted the area around his painted mouth carefully with a napkin before pulling a cue card out from behind her ear. "Moves," he read aloud, "not just Pokémon, have types assigned to them as well. True or false?"

. . . This wasn't a campaign so much as it was a free giveaway of Pokétches. Not that she was complaining. "True."

"Yup. Here you go."

"Thank you," she said and took Coupon Two. "Nice Crobatman lunchbox."

He didn't take it as a sarcastic jibe, and instead smiled at the sincere compliment. "Thanks. It's a limited edition."

She nodded in return, but found nothing else to really say. And then, feeling rather awkward, she fled the area and hastily returned to the company's owner, who, true to his promise, was standing exactly where he had been earlier on.

"Are those the coupons?" he seized them from her hands. "Let me count them using the app on my Pokétch. One, two, three . . . ."

Either he was showing off the functions of his watch, or he was really bad at math. Dawn watched as he furrowed his brows in thought before snapping his fingers. "That's right! Congratulations, you just won yourself a free Pokétch!"

"Thank you," she said as she accepted the pink box the head had pulled out from a digital storage key.

"Enjoy!"

While shopping for supplies, she checked out her new watch's applications. A digital clock, a calculator, a step counter, an email and a status checker for her party Pokémon that she synchronized to her Poké balls immediately. Pretty decent and useful.

"Seems like we saved ourselves some money," Dawn told the two Pokémon that appeared as perfectly healthy on the status app. But the items she could buy were still restricted by badge count (zero), and the shops didn't have anything in her price range. The day was still young – still time to look for trainers willing to battle.

They saw that Looker was drifting around the east of the city, towards Route 203, so they avoided that area and opted for the northern Route 204.

It wasn't a bad experience. Sekhmet took down five wild Starly and one that belonged to a trainer without once losing her temper – although the aggression was still there – and learned how to use charge. When they tried the electric converter, it worked perfectly.

Neptune, not to be outdone or outshone, pounded and bubbled away everything including the grass-type Budew some of the trainers used. He also made himself learn water sport.

"You know, friendly competition's good and everything but you're supposed to be on the same team," she reminded them as they headed back after filling Neptune's Poké ball from a pond. With the sheer size of Jubilife, she guessed that the center would be booked full if they didn't go early.

They were too tired to argue. Dawn returned them and hurried to the center so they could be healed.

"We'll head out towards Oreburgh tomorrow," she promised them in their room. "I think we're ready for our first gym challenge."

And then she remembered. "Oh. Wait. Before we head out to Route 203, we just need to drop by somewhere first."

At their inquiring looks she gave them a sad smile. "It's something that you two should really know, since we're going to be together for a long journey."

For the rest of the night, she alternated between texting Lyra on her new watch through the email app and laughing at the comedy show playing on TV in the waiting room.

* * *

><p>The next morning, their final stop in Jubilife City was the memorial.<p>

She really should have come here in the first place, but she had been trying to delay it. It was one thing to visit a gravestone, another thing entirely to go to the site of death. It was bad enough seeing it everywhere, every year around a certain time. The video of the Global Trade Station being destroyed by far too many explosions, taking lives of over a thousand gone in flames of fanatics had been filmed at this very site.

Dawn thought she could hear the screams of the dying and shook her head to clear it.

Neptune and Sekhmet must have sensed some shift in her emotion as the three of them approached, because they fell into a respectful silence. She appreciated that.

Dawn laid the soda she had bought earlier on in front of the memorial, next to a few roses and some other flower she didn't know the name of. There were always flowers or offerings here, even in the winter. No one wanted to forget the victims, or let their spirits sit in abandoned silence. No one wanted to forget.

But they buried the memory of the days before this away, and they hid. They let the bullies win. Dawn scowled at the hypocrisy of 'never forgetting'. "Do you know the story of the 11/9 attack?" she asked, not expecting them to.

Her Pokémon shook their heads. "Well," she said slowly, thinking over her words. "There was . . . There were people who didn't agree with what choices the Champion was making. So to make a point, they brought a lot of Pokémon and made the building he and his friends were in explode."

That didn't come even close to properly explaining just what had happened, but she couldn't go into detail, not in front of the obelisk, and not here. It wasn't fair to retell the reason why all these innocent people had lost their lives like she was reciting a history paper at the sight of their death.

"This was the Global Trade Station," she said. "It's where people traded Pokémon with other people in different regions before the trade system was made easier to access. They dealt with other things, too. Stocks, banking and all that."

She knew where the one particular name was. Fifth column, twenty-seventh row, golden script on black marble. A bit too far for her to be able to see from below, but she knew where it was.

"They made the Global Terminal to replace it – it's down a few blocks from here – because even when bad things happen in life, trades still need to be made and money still needs to be dealt with."

Because even when sad things, even when bad things happened, the world went on spinning and living.

Her Pokémon fidgeted. Sekhmet got closer without a treat being offered and butted her head against Dawn's leg. Neptune patted the top of her foot.

Years ago when the pain was fresh and she was a child, when someone who didn't know asked what her father did for a living, she would freeze up before bursting into tears. Now the wound was healed, not as sore and fresh. It still hurt, but it wasn't a crippling pain. "My dad was working in the Global Trade Station when they – the disagreeing people – set off the explosion."

It wasn't a crippling pain anymore. It was part of a motive, a drive that kept her going. A fire burning to add to her ambition.

Dawn patted her Pokémon on their heads. "I'm telling you this for a reason," she said quietly, but her voice was strong. Good. "On this journey, we're partners. I won't say we're friends yet – I'd like to be, but friendship takes time to be strong and permanent. We'll get there later if I have something to say about it, but right now, we're partners."

Her two Pokémon, both just as ambitious as she was, looked straight back at her with clear eyes. The two of them both knew what she was saying to them. They understood her words perfectly. "This means that we can trust each other with our backs, alright? It may be hard for the two of you to trust me, but know that I trust you, and that I'll have your backs no matter what."

Sekhmet lightly head-butted Dawn's hand. It wasn't rejection, but rather a one-sided high five of a sort. Neptune took one of her hands with his downy flipper and shook.

Dawn stood up and gave one last look to the memorial. "Good. Let's get going, then."

It might have been her imagination, but she felt like their support of her was a lot stronger now than it had been before.

* * *

><p>Looker was no longer around Route 203, so she assumed that she was allowed to pass. A short way down, she saw Barry, who was just taking something from a grumbling trainer. "Hey!" she called, and jogged up to him. Neptune recognized him, and began to explain to Sekhmet just who the blond kid was in Pokémon speech as she hadn't met him before.<p>

He waved back and bounced impatiently on his toes. "You're late, as usual," he sighed. "You better have gotten tougher!"

"I could say the same for you," she countered. "Seeing as we _beat_ you the last time, I'm going to be disappointed if you didn't get even a little stronger."

"Of course we did!" he yanked his sleeves up roughly. "And I'll demonstrate, too! Go, Starling!"

Dawn sent a mental prayer up to Mespirit when she saw his Starly. That was a _big_ Starly.

If Sekhmet had really gotten her grudge against the birds settled, she wouldn't react to the large bird. If she hadn't and went into berserk mode again, Dawn would return her before going back to work on her in the routes around Jubilife. "Sekhmet," she said, "let's see if you have your anger under control."

Her little Shinx didn't go into crazy mode, but her intimidate was still enough to make Starling cower. "Thank Mespirit," she muttered, and then raised her voice. "Tackle!"

"Hey, no fair!" Barry protested when Starling fell with a single blow to the neck, having been too shaken to properly protect his vital regions. "I wasn't ready!"

"Sorry," she said, not quite apologetic. It wasn't a formal battle between the two of them, and he was the one always nagging her about not being on top of things. This was his fault. And knowing him, he'd recover.

Like she predicted, Barry shook it off. "Alright then, trusty buddy! Go, Champ!"

The Turtwig bound out happily. When he recognized her and Neptune, he gave a little wave with his stumpy leg before falling over due to losing his balance. "Hey, little guy," she said. "So you named him Champ?"

"Yeah! Because we're going to be the toughest ever! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!"

"You'll have to beat us first!" But her mind was going into overdrive even as she said this playfully. Grass had an advantage over water. Did Champ know any grass-type moves?

She remembered how Champ had withstood so many attacks with ease during their first battle. He had a high defense.

And Sekhmet could solve that problem easily with a move right up her alley. "Can you keep going?" she asked the Shinx, who yowled. "Then let's do this! Leer!"

Champ flinched at the fearsome look on Sekhmet's face. "Quick!" Barry ordered. "Counter it with withdraw!"

Dawn, a bit taken back, had to recover quickly. "Keep leering at him!"

"Cover your defenses! Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!"

Barry was . . . surprisingly patient. Whenever Champ tried to peer out of his shell and look for an opportunity to attack, Sekhmet's eyes were there to glower. This was only countered by the constant withdrawal and rearranging of limbs within the shell to cover the drops in defense.

Sekhmet was getting impatient. And, judging by the way her leers grew more and more murderous, she was getting outraged. Finally, she leapt forwards and tackled the shell Champ was hiding in.

"Heh," Barry smirked and Dawn did a double take. Had he actually based a strategy on this? He didn't know her Pokémon, but he had actually managed to stay patient enough until Sekmet's limited amount had run out.

. . . Or he could just be happy that he had an edge. She was looking at it too closely, when she needed to be quick on her feet.

Barry snapped his fingers. "Champ, let's move to the offensive as well!"

The Turtwig kept most of his body within his shell, but used his two rear legs to propel his entire weight into a leaping Sekhmet's stomach. When she got to her feet again and tried to jump him, he hastily pulled his legs back in.

It wasn't another struggle for defense. Not when Sekhmet was too incensed to listen to orders. She charged recklessly and was hit with strategic tackles. When she shook too much on her feet, Dawn called her back. "Time! Potion break!"

She pulled a spray bottle out of her bag's item storage and gave Sekhmet's entire body a good spray. "Don't overdo it," she warned the electric type that was squirming in her hold, ready to go out and battle again. "I don't want you to get too hurt."

Dawn wasn't sure if Sekhmet had even heard. The Shinx had gone right back to glaring at Champ, who stood looking like he could go on for the rest of the day. Sekhmet leapt right back in.

"Alright, I think that's enough withdrawals," Barry sighed. "Tackle barrage!"

Champ was slow. His bulk, while amazing in defense, did cost him in speed. But he was pretty strong. Soon Sekhmet looked just as battered as she had before the potion.

This gave Dawn two choices. One was to recall her and use Neptune while Sekhmet was healed to freshen her up, and the other was to let her fight until she was knocked out.

Sekhmet obviously wanted to go down fighting, but Dawn still didn't know whether Champ knew any grass type moves or not. And if Sekhmet was out, Neptune would be nothing but fodder for grass based attacks. She needed to keep Sekhmet in reserve.

"Return! Neptune, go buddy!"

Barry grinned. "Tackle!"

"Bubble, then pound him when he's near!"

It turned out that Dawn was lucky in two ways. Champ had _not_ learnt any grass-type moves _and_ he had been significantly worn out by Sekhmet before she had been switched out. Neptune managed to knock him out with a pound that hit a critical spot after hiding behind a bubble attack. "Whoo!" she cheered, jumping up and down before picking up Neptune and Sekhmet. "We won! Yeah! Go, Team Dawn! Go Sekhmet! Go Neptune!"

"Whaaat?" Barry gawked, quickly returning Champ. "I lost again? No way!"

"Yes way!" she crowed.

"Well, that's it!" he clenched his hands into fists and raised them into the air. "That's the last time I lose! And then I'll be the world's toughest trainer!"

"No, I will!"

"No, me!"

"No, _me_!"

After the fake trash-talk, bravado banter, they ran to the Pokémon Center and had everyone healed up. "I'm going to have to challenge the Oreburgh gym to toughen up," he said when he received Champ and Starling from the receptionist.

Dawn shot him a look. "After all that talk about _me_ being slow, you're telling me you haven't even challenged the gym yet?"

"Hey, I was getting to know Starling better," he protested.

* * *

><p>"Hey."<p>

Sekhmet scratched the back of her neck with the star on her tail. "What?" she asked the bird that had just fluttered down onto the ground next to her. Neptune was with Champ on the other side of their trainers, apparently chatting. She supposed she should follow his example. It appeared that her girl was a close friend to the blond boy. Not close in the sense like a mate, but something like a fellow member of the pack. If they were close, then she would see the bird a lot.

"I just wanted to say that was a good battle," he said.

She eyed him. "And?"

"Does there always have to be an 'and'?" Starling asked. When she continued to give him an unimpressed look, he sighed and continued. "But I'm going to beat you next time."

Sekhmet snorted and stretched her front legs. This bird was under high delusions. "Bloody unlikely," she told him frankly.

Starling bristled. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're not going to beat me, of course," she replied calmly. This bird had been stronger than the one that had knocked her out a few days ago, and yet she had won against him. Now that she was strong enough, there was no need for her to defeat his kind to avenge the humiliation she had felt for being knocked out by a creature that was supposed to be weak to her. "I am lightning. You are a bird. I will always be stronger than you."

"Oh yeah?" Starling fluffed up. Sekhmet shot him a glare that had him flinch.

"Yes."

The two older members of the teams were also having a conversation, but they weren't building rivalries like the other two. Rather, they were getting reacquainted now that they weren't in the too-clean building that had reeked of sanitizer.

"How's training treating you?" Champ was a very relaxed Pokémon. Neptune had noticed that about the Turtwig, back when they had lived in the lab and he hadn't been called Neptune. Before Dawn, as the time could be called.

"Good," he replied, stretching a flipper. He fancied that the earlier pound had left a ghost of a pain on it. He could get through it, easily. "The girl's pretty smart, even if she's weird. I suppose I'm fortunate." She was likeable enough to earn his help, anyways.

"Yeah, I feel the same about mine. He's loud and runs fast, but he always makes sure that I'm with him." Champ shook his head. "Wonder how _she's_ doing."

There was only one female he'd be referring to in his presence. "The Chimchar?" Neptune dug for a memory. "Heard she goes by the name Charlotte now." Or something like that. He was pretty sure it was Charlotte, though. She had been proud of it when they had met again a few days ago, just as proud of the fact that she was on her trainer's shoulder.

Bah. His name was one of a powerful deity's, and it was his job, his sacred _duty_ to protect _his_ trainer because she needed help and power standing behind her. He couldn't do that if she was carrying him around like some baby. He needed to hurry and evolve into a Prinplup, and then an Empoleon. He'd been stuck in this tiny, baby like form – and the lab – for far too long now, and didn't want to stay a Piplup for any longer than he had to. Cuddling in public was degrading and adding to the humiliation, and his trainer understood that fine even if she was a girl. Chimchar – Charlotte – apparently didn't.

"Weird name. Maybe it's because she's a girl."

"Maybe," Neptune agreed, pleased that his friend had followed his path of thought. "The assistant boy always did like her more than us."

"His loss," Champ shrugged. "Our gain."

Some hissing from his teammate's direction had him look over, where Sekhmet was leering at Starling. "She's going to be a handful when she learns electric attacks," he grumbled.

"Never had to worry about that," Champ sniffed, lying down on the ground and making himself comfortable. "Probably never will."

* * *

><p>AN: When Lucas was demonstrating how to catch a Pokémon, he had a female Chimchar (and I was all WTF man). Later, during the tag team battle against the grunts, the game forgot and made her male. I decided to write her as female for the whole story because it was cool that the NPC default got a female starter.<p>

The date and the journal entry isn't at the beginning of the chapter because the part above it is supposed to be the same day as the previous chapter's (June 23rd).

Global Police: For those of you who played FRLG, on the S.S. Anne there's a gentleman who refers to himself as a member of the Global Police. The timeline was changed so that the Global Police was like the predecessor to Interpol. I based the succession and the concept off of the creation (and failure and subsequent replacement) of the League of Nations.

And I'm sorry for the beginning being so long. I promise that the next chapter will be the gym battle.


	5. Coals into Diamonds

A.S.107

July 5th

_Today was my first gym battle._

* * *

><p>After a few more banters, Dawn waved to Barry as he dashed down Route 203 and into Oreburgh Gate. As soon as he was out of sight, her hand and smile dropped. "He was . . . stronger," she muttered to herself.<p>

Chirping a question, Neptune poked her knee.

"Yeah, you two were absolutely splendid," she smiled down at them, but her worries didn't go away. They had won, but would they win again next time?

And she had used a potion in battle, too. Not that they hadn't banned using items, but he hadn't healed his Pokémon. Didn't that mean he was, technically, stronger?

The only solution, as she saw it, was to simply get stronger so he couldn't beat her. "Hey, why don't we train a bit here? There's no need to rush through."

Dawn was relieved when neither of them complained. They spent the daylight of ten days weaving through the woods near Jubilife, searching for wild Pokémon – discovering that wild Abra had a nasty habit of teleporting away before one could even reach for a Poké ball, empty or not – and battling trainers.

From what she knew about rock Pokémon indigenous to the area around Oreburgh, as well as what was known about Roark, she came up with a few strategies. They weren't as complex as the ones Uncle Palmer had told her and Barry about, a few times, but they were good enough. Hopefully.

But to really test that out they needed to try this against rock type Pokémon, which would be the Oreburgh Gym's specialty type.

She stocked up on supplies, got them through checkups and packed up all her belongings. The next day, they were marching through the Oreburgh Gate with the plan of hanging out in the city for a few days. Oreburgh had the largest mine in all of Sinnoh, and sections of it were set aside for trainer use. Once they were used to fighting against rocky Pokémon, they would challenge the gym. She wanted to see if her ideas would work.

Oreburgh Gate was pretty much a long tunnel. Dark, rocky and wild Pokémon here and there, although they kept a wary distance most of the time. The Geodude that dared to come nearby were met with a taste of something they wanted to pull off at the gym, but after the first three even the hard-headed rock types stopped bothering them.

Dawn should have known that it would be harder to train in the main way through the gate. This part – the main 'hallway' of the tunnel stretching long from Route 203 to Oreburgh – was a 'safe' area, made by the miners of Oreburgh to ensure that the stream of people coming their way didn't die out crossing over the harsh Coronet mountains. There were rangers keeping eyes out, as well as some groups of younger kids being taken around by older trainers and even some hikers.

One of the lone hikers inside waved her over. "You're a new trainer, aren't you?" he asked, peering at her with eyes set in deep wrinkles.

"Is it obvious?" she asked.

He nodded. Dawn sighed.

"But I'm sure you'll be a great one," he added. Probably to make her feel better.

Well, it did. "Thank you."

"Good to see young kids involved in healthy activities," the hiker mused. "No drugs, no getting pregnant or playing video games indoors all day . . . ."

That good feeling was replaced by wariness as his words began to creep her out. Dawn briefly entertained the thought of having Sekhmet tackle him, but settled for taking a half-step back. "Thank you?"

He snapped out of his thoughts. "Hmm? Oh, right. Well, keep it up, kid. Here's something that could help."

It was a Hidden Machine for rock smash. Neither of her two Pokémon could learn it, but she still thanked him – again – and hurried along. There were a few trainers who wanted some battles, but other than that there weren't any notable events.

Outside, she took a deep breath. "We're out!" she cheered. The Gate, true to its name, was practically at the doorsteps of Oreburgh city. She could see the few tall buildings amongst sky-high conveyer belts painted red, whirring and transporting mined ores out from the ground and into shipping containers to be taken all across the region and exported.

Her cheer faded a bit when she took a few steps into Oreburgh and realized she had no idea just which direction the gym was in. "Shoot."

She could check her map . . . or she could just ask for directions. Dawn waved down a youngster, hoping he wouldn't be a passerby trainer like her. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but do you know where the Oreburgh Gym is?"

He gave her a grin. "Are you a new trainer?"

She held back a sigh. "Is it that obvious?" Dawn asked him, thinking of how the hiker had known with just a glance.

"Just guessing. So, how many badges?"

"Well, if I get there and win, then one." It was better than admitting zero out loud. That was the story she was sticking to.

"Ah, so you're a newbie," he crossed his arms. "You know, since it's your first badge you're going for, I'll take you to the gym myself!"

That was a lot better than she could have hoped for. "Thanks, man!"

He led her by a few streets and buildings. "That's the Oreburgh Gym," he told her, pointing at a large building with a brown roof. "And – there's someone in front of it."

But Dawn was already surging forwards because she recognized the Starly, the Turtwig and the sandy blond hair. "Barry!"

The boy grumbled – of course the ones with boyfriends asked for help – and stalked away angrily while Barry danced in his spot, too excited to hold still. "You're _laaate_," he sang. "You missed seeing me win my badge. And by three days!"

"We trained," she corrected. "Better safe than sorry."

"Hmph. We're good as is!" he pounded his chest with one fist. "And anyways, you're too late. The gym leader's not here."

Dawn shrugged. "That's fine with me. I want to try training in the mines, anyways."

Barry gave her a suspicious look. "For how long?"

"A few days?" Dawn gave a modest estimate. She was thinking of cutting that estimate, though. How had Barry gotten his first badge already?

"So slow," Barry groaned. "Well, see ya!"

She grabbed the ends of his scarf and yanked before he could run away from her. "Ack!"

"Where are you going?" she asked him while he wheezed and loosened his scarf.

"To train!" he said, once his scarf wasn't tight around his neck. "Route 207's supposed to have some pretty neat Pokémon and I wanted to check it out."

" . . . good luck," she said, and he ran off, this time with the edges of his scarf clutched close to him so she couldn't yank them back again.

During the times they'd known each other, Aunt Margaret and her mother had spent a considerable chunk of their nagging to drill into both their heads that Barry was to stick with Dawn, and not ditch her because she was 'too slow', just like how Dawn was not to ditch Barry because he was 'rushing it'. Safety was a priority, they had stressed frequently.

For a moment Dawn had been about to remind him of not ditching her. She'd been brainwashed a lot more than she had thought.

She tossed her hair back and held her back a little straighter than she usually did. She was a trainer now, with her own Pokémon. She didn't need to have a guy around to be safe. Sure, there were statistics of crime rates being high around trainers, but Sinnoh's crime rates in general had always been amongst the lowest in the world – 11/9 being an extreme exception – and she was careful. She would be fine. She could take care of herself.

After all, if she'd beaten Barry, then she didn't need him to be safe, right?

Right. She had beaten him, and would continue to beat him. She would be fine.

And to prove just how well she could take care of herself, Dawn decided to go down into the mines and fetch the gym leader back up to the surface so she could challenge him. As soon as possible would be preferable, possibly even within the day.

* * *

><p>Whether she and her Pokémon were going to be able to defend themselves or not would have to be put to the tests later. Right now, Dawn was more focused on navigating through the mines without needlessly getting into a dangerous area.<p>

That wasn't to say that the mines weren't bad. The people working were surprisingly friendly, and even offered to battle her on her way down – easy way of testing if their training was going to be effective against rock types, as the workers had Pokémon common to the mines like Geodude on them. Their willingness to battle her may have come more from the boredom of work, but it worked for her favour.

"You're pretty good, kid," one of them, a worker who had introduced himself as Colin, said after Neptune beat his Geodude. The other workers hadn't known where Roark was at the moment, but had pointed her to the most likely places. Colin swore he knew where Roark was, and said that he would tell her if she beat him because it was more fun to get somewhere after going through a mission. His words. "But can you take – Mort!"

Sekhmet, after an unfortunate encounter with one of the wild Geodude residing in the caves, had been metaphorically benched against all rock and ground types. Dawn now let her out to face the Machop. Most of the workers seemed happy using their Geodude, but it seemed Colin would prefer using his Machop as well. "Tackle!" she ordered Sekhmet.

"Leer!"

Her Shinx flinched after getting leered at for the first time herself. It seemed to unnerve her, but she still took out the Machop with another tackle. And then she was surrounded with electricity, even when she hadn't used charge.

Dawn's Pokédex told her that Sekhmet had learned an electric attack move – spark. A physical move that had a chance of causing paralysis, it was good for the Shinx family, who was more gifted in attack rather than special attack.

Sekhmet grinned when she was told the good news. She tried it against a Zubat that got too close and knocked the flying type back, much to her delight.

"Okay, so you're pretty good," Colin admitted. "Guess I won't have to hold you back any further, little lady. Roark! You've got yourself a challenger here!"

A guy in gray work clothes and a red miner's helmet glanced their way before heading over. "Hey," he nodded to Colin before facing her. In the dim light and the shadows of the helmet he wore she could make out the features of one of Sinnoh's gym leaders, now that he had been pointed out to her. "So, you're here to challenge me?"

"Not _here_ here," Dawn corrected. "I just came here because I heard you were down in the mines instead of in the gym."

Roark pulled out a pair of slightly stained glasses from his inner pocket before putting them on. "There," he said. "Now I can see better. Think you've got what it takes to face me and win?"

"She's a tough cookie," Colin interjected.

"Yes," said Dawn at the same time.

The gym leader gave an amused smile. "I thought you were my friend," he said jokingly to Colin before looking at her more seriously. "I'll hold you to that promise," he said. "Alright. Mason! Make sure no one does anything too stupid while I'm gone!"

"You got it, Roark!"

"That includes throwing parties during work hours!" the miners all groaned good-naturedly, and Roark smirked at them before turning to face her. He had to look down a bit to meet her eyes. "And you," he said. "What's your name?"

She squared her back and straightened her stance. "Dawn. Dawn Steele."

At the mention of her last name some of the miners gave curious looks, but she remained stony-faced and maintained eye contact with Roark.

Despite his youth, he really was a gym leader. He didn't even react. "Nice to meet you, Dawn Steele," he removed the dirty glove from his right hand and offered it in a handshake. She took it – he had a lot of calluses – and shook it as firmly and as seriously as she could. From his pleased look, she had done the right thing. "I'm Roark Martin, and I'll accept your challenge in the gym. Be there, or be square."

And then he headed up.

Dawn stayed behind, just for a few moments. "What does it mean to be square?" she asked Colin.

"Dunno," he shrugged, shifting off his feet and deciding that he better start getting back to work. "But he says it a lot, so it must be something that he understands. Why don't you ask him?"

"Sure, I'll do that."

* * *

><p>Before heading to the gym, she took a little detour and got her Pokémon healed at the center. Ten minutes later, she was in front of the gym. Barry was gone – knowing him, <em>long<em> gone – and her first gym challenge was about to start. "Let's do this," she said and stepped in. It was five in the afternoon, and she wanted to get dinner to celebrate.

A guy at the front waved her down. "Identification?"

Security had gone up after 11/9; and while gym leaders weren't kept out of the spotlight with their identities kept as a secret like the Elite Four and the Champion were, safety precautions taken had been increased. Registrations needed to be made with a League-mandated Trainer ID, and files on said ID were kept on permanent record in case the trainer needed to be investigated later on. Lobbies for privacy had been unable to stand after 11/9 and the laws had passed to allow it.

But even before that, gyms had taken appointments. Gym Leaders, after all, had their own lives to live, and there were only so many people that could be battled in a day. Had it been a busy day at the gym, with appointments booked until the next day, Dawn would have probably never forgiven herself for her stupidity in just rushing off. As it was, she was lucky – no one had booked an appointment for a gym battle at the time she came along.

She handed over her trainer card and waited while he scanned it into the computer. "All in order," he said. "And the trainers in this gym have been alerted that this is your first badge challenge. Do you require an explanation?"

He reminded her of a robot. "Yes please," she said, because she wanted to refresh her memory. The last time she had cracked open her trainer's handbook had been months ago, because she had been so sure she knew everything inside. Now she was feeling the Beautifly in her stomach flutter, and her palms sweat. She wanted this – to battle, to win badges – but it was nerve-wracking, to say the least. Her heartbeat, frantic and erratic, could probably be heard by everyone around.

"The leader, Roark, will use Pokémon deemed at a level adequate for a beginner's challenge. You may avoid the gym trainers within this gym, or battle them. You may leave the gym to heal your Pokémon any time you wish – and this is recommended to maintain the health of Pokémon. As a first badge challenge, the leader will use a set amount of Pokémon, but any challengers may use any number of Pokémon, from one to a full party. Depending on the number of badges owned by the challenger, the leader will use a certain quality and amount of healing items in the battle, as well as Pokémon that have been restrained. These Pokémon may or may not be the leader's signature or main party Pokémon. Any questions?"

Dawn thought for a bit. "No, that's good. Thanks!"

The robot-guy gave her a ghost of a smile. "Good luck."

Because they could and because Neptune had ran ahead before she could make up her mind, they challenged the two gym trainers. Neptune had learned peck while down in the mines – as the band-aid covering her bleeding finger could attest to – but a flying type move wasn't going to do much in a rock type gym so they stuck to his bubble. As nice as it would have been, testing out some theories with rock Pokémon trained at the gym, she didn't want to tip her hand and give Roark a hint.

The first trainer shook his head. "I think I get why you didn't just avoid us."

Dawn gave a non-committing grunt and struggled to catch up with Neptune, who had already run ahead and was bothering the next guy by pecking the ground around his feet and making him jump around.

The next guy also had a Geodude, and it was just as easily taken down by bubble. Neptune chirped proudly when he began to glow. "Whoa!" the gym trainer took a step back.

The glowing continued and actually grew. Once the bright supernova had faded, she found Neptune to be taller and buffer, looking very much like the Prinplup picture she had seen two weeks back. "You evolved!" she cheered. Even Sekhmet laid aside their teammate pseudo-rivalry thing to lightly butt him on the back.

And if she remembered correctly, Prinplup had stronger fins than Piplup, and evolution normally triggered a new move. Her Pokédex confirmed her memory, informing her that the newly-evolved Neptune could use metal claw.

"Awesome," the guy she was battling said, sounding like he didn't really mean it. "But my next Pokémon won't be so easy to beat, even with evolution under your belt."

He sent out an Onix, and for a moment she panicked because that snake was huge and rather scary. It was literally a rolling mass of boulders that could have crushed her squat, and the way it rumbled and roared only made it worse.

Logic and rationale overcame the initial surge of panic, brought on by sheer natural survival instincts. One, Palmer's Rhypherior had a louder and scarier roar. Less grating and more timber, but still scarier. Two, this was a gym Pokémon. Nothing was perfect, but there were regulations. This was a legal, certified area, not some illegal fight club where anyone could die at any second. Three, Neptune had a double type advantage against the rock and ground type Onix. And four, her starter now had extra power behind him thanks to evolution.

"Bubble," she said, and even the bubble attack was stronger. The first wave was aimed upwards, creating a layer of translucent bubbles in the line of the Onix's sight to Neptune. The second one was aimed not at the body, swaying, but at the tail. When it was jerked up in surprise, Neptune avoided a rock throw attack narrowly and dove forwards, metal claw shining. After a swipe, he managed to bubble again while the Onix screeched at him.

The gym trainer had been wrong. With the type advantage and evolution under their belt, Neptune was strong enough to take down the Onix with a few hits without taking any damage himself. "Good job," was what she got from him. "But Roark won't be such a pushover."

Dawn resisted the urge to sniff snobbishly at him. Sore loser. Deciding to be the better person, she merely kept her face blank and moved on instead of saying anything to him. Before climbing the final steps, she dug in her bag for some snacks and water. Neptune snorted and made to go battle, but she insisted that he eat them. Knowing just how proud he was, that swagger was probably him pretending to be fine when his body was tired from the rapid metamorphosis it had just gone through.

She had, of course, asked if they should forfeit the gym match, but Neptune insisted. She made him eat every last bit of the food and dawdled, fumbling with her bag and going to the bathroom while he rested.

She earned a good five minutes, and finally decided that if they were going to go battle, they'd battle. If they won, great; if they lost, they learned new information.

At the top of the stairs, Roark gave her a thumbs up as he led her down to a large room with a relatively small field. There was no separate booth for a trainer to stand in, protected, or microphones to give orders into. Two Baltoy on both sides of the field spun idly, for shield-raising purposes. "I saw your battles," he said after the ref had stepped up to rattle out the rules for them. "Congratulations on your Piplup evolving. Let's see if you've got what it takes to deserve the Coal Badge."

In response, she grinned brightly. "Neptune," she told the Prinplup at her side. "You're up."

He swaggered onto the field, slow but arrogant. The Baltoy began to spin, glowing and humming in the background.

Roark tipped his mining helmet, just a bit, like it was a gentleman's hat. "Granville!" he tossed a ball onto the field, letting out a Geodude.

Dawn clapped her hands to let the sharp sound ring in the gym. "Start off with metal claw!"

Neptune jumped at him, the tips of his flippers glowing silver. He scratched at the Geodude's rocky surface. She bit her lip when she saw that it hadn't done as much damage as she would have liked. That was to be expected, she supposed, seeing that he had just evolved. Evolution could give a whole lot more power, but there was still change involved. A lot of change the body went through in the span of a few minutes. Neptune's evolution hadn't been as dramatically different as, say, a Feebas to a Milotic, but it had still been quite a change for his physical – and possibly mental – state.

Her doubts resurged. She could still back out now. Go back to training, maybe a day or so for Neptune to get used to his new form.

That was, if she could bend both hers and his pride to do so. And the doubt was pushed to the backseat by resurging determination. It wasn't gone, but she was ignoring it. After all, Neptune could still bubble things like crazy, and there was still their initial strategy, just as applicable as it had been back when he'd been a Piplup. Dawn had to try that, at the very least.

And so, for this battle, she would stick to that like a Shellos on its favourite berry.

"Set up with stealth rock!" Granville formed sharp wedges of stone and threw them up into the air, where they floated as if suspended by invisible strings. Neptune eyed them warily and kept away from them, but they didn't attack him.

It was familiar – she had seen that somewhere – but she couldn't place it. And she couldn't afford to not pay attention right now. "Long distance attack! Let's use bubble!"

Before Granville could use another move, Neptune had sent a massive amount of bubbles straight into his face. Most of them popped on contact, but a few flew past the rock Pokémon and landed on the rocky terrain, some even maintaining their round form as they stuck to the ground.

The double weakness, the same type advantage and the newly-acquired power from Neptune's new evolution still wasn't enough to counter the distance between them, or to take the Geodude down. Granville began to roll forwards, determined to continue fighting.

"Don't ease up on the bubble," Dawn ordered. In the end, their opponent was a Geodude. Despite their resilience, all one needed to do was to never let up on the pressure. If the Geodude wanted to come closer to face a more powerful bubble directly, that was fine by them. Let Granville shoot himself in his metaphorical foot. Thanks to practice, Neptune could keep the bubble going steadily for a minute if he needed to, without the force behind it decreasing.

That also let more bubbles stick to the ground. They were popping, but there were definitely still bubbles clinging to the field.

Before he could even finish rolling up to Neptune, Granville had fainted. The low special defense of his kind, as well as all the advantages they had on their side was enough.

"Good job," Roark said, returning the Geodude as the referee signed that the gym leader's Pokémon had fainted. "Then . . . Danforth!"

Danforth was an Onix. Unlike the other guy's, the rocks that made up its body were much smoother and rounder.

Roark's Danforth was a different matter. Polished and rounded, it looked much older than the gym trainer's Onix had been, and was a lot bigger as well.

Dawn couldn't give that huge rock snake more time to move than it already had. Onix, before they evolved into the slow and even sturdier Steelix, were pretty fast. Praying to Mespirit and Dialga that the water she had filled Neptune's Poké ball with more water just the other day from a pond near Jubilife would be enough for him, even after evolution, Dawn ordered him to use bubble.

"Rock throw!"

The boulder that Danforth through with a flick of his tail popped some of Neptune's attacks, but a good half of them still managed to hit Danforth. The rock sailed through the air and hit Neptune in his stomach. He squawked, but then pushed off the boulder and stood back up.

"Good boy," she muttered before raising her voice. As an earlier gym badge, Roark had deemed it enough to use a smaller field, so there were no mikes or stadiums. She just had to speak loudly to be heard. "Water spot, then bubble again, before he recovers!"

"Don't let them! Screech!"

Neptune didn't have to be told twice. He opened his beak and spat the attacks out in their respective order. The shriek was painful to hear, but it didn't do enough as the bubbles, flying out after the mist Neptune sprayed out to dampen the entire field, headed towards the Onix. The rocky snake backed up, right into some of the bubbles that had been stuck on the ground. Thanks to the water sport, it was reinforced with more water, and popped on contact when the Onix backed onto it.

Surprised at the attack, the Onix froze for the critical second, and the rest of Neptune's bubbles caught up to it. She felt the earth shake when the Onix fell, unconscious.

"Excellent," Roark returned Danforth, smiling. "And an interesting use of water sport, to strengthen bubbles left scattered around the field like mines. Easily predictable, but interesting."

"It's pretty simple," she admitted. The bubbles were visible to anyone who had functioning eyes, and it had only been because they'd been scattered behind the Onix that they'd been discounted.

That, and the Onix being so big. He had swept himself well into the range of a lot of those bubbles when he'd reared back. "We'll work on strategy as we get closer and stronger." When she had more to work with, when she had become more advanced herself. This was just the beginning, after all.

"A fine plan," he raised a hand to slightly adjust his helmet again. "But I'm afraid you'll have to work on it while retraining for a rematch in this gym, because my third Pokémon is going to overwhelm you. Go, Levi!"

Roark sent out a Pokémon she had only seen on the news. It was one of the fossil Pokémon revived from remains of ancient life forms by new technology, named . . . "Cranidos."

Great, she didn't know much about fossil Pokémon. An unfortunate mistake, sure, and hopefully one that wouldn't cost her.

"Correct." And here, Roark made his mistake. He decided to be a nice guy and tell her information she was lacking in.

Well, Dawn supposed that was part of the job, to educate trainers that would most likely neglect their education unless it was driven into them every other possible chance. And in the end, it was his mistake, not hers.

"And, in case you didn't know, Levi here is a pure rock type. Therefore, he lacks the double weakness to water that you've been happily taking advantage of so far."

"Just rock type?" Dawn repeated.

"Correct."

Whatever he had been expecting when he told her that, he probably had not expected her next action. "Neptune, return! Sekhmet, take over!"

Neptune was also a bit taken aback, but he decided that he could trust the girl enough to step down even if he had the advantage. The Shinx jumped onto the field, tail lashing here and there. She was ready to fight. "Let's do this!" Dawn said with a grin.

And then both she and the Shinx yelped, because the shards of rock from the stealth rock earlier on had come back to bite her in the butt by flying down to the ground and hurting Sekhmet.

_Now_ she remembered what stealth rock did. One of the many entry hazards, infamous for being a bird killer in tournaments. Flying types who could bypass any spikes set on the ground would be crushed in the air, possibly costing them a victory. Palmer's Dragonite didn't like those very much. "Sorry!" she called to Sekhmet, who was shaking her head and fur out. "I didn't know that was how it worked!"

Roark looked at the girl and tried to figure out what she was thinking. Water against rock – that made sense, and the use of water sport to make bubbles stay longer while on the ground was smart. Now she had switched a Pokémon into a battlefield with a trap that she hadn't understood when it had no type advantage.

She hadn't seemed like a rich girl with no idea of what she was doing back in the mines. Had he been mistaken? Was her last name just something she'd inherited?

But Dawn had a plan. A Plan _B_, in case Roark decided to use an exclusively rock type Pokémon. "No ground subtype!" she yelled to Sekhmet, who grinned despite the painful shower of rock shards earlier on. "Sekhmet, give it your all with a spark!"

It clicked to the gym leader, then, just what the girl had been aiming for. Of course – both Granville and Danforth had been dual rock and ground types. Electric attacks like spark wouldn't have done a thing for them, but for Levi, it was a completely different story.

Still, electric attacks weren't super-effective. If it came down to a power struggle, Levi was more than capable of meeting it head first – literally. "Meet it with headbutt!"

The two Pokémon charged. They met at the center, and clashed, throwing lightning and bits of rocks off the ground. Sekhmet's smaller stature had her more easily pushed back, but Levi cried out and shook a little as the sparks crawled up and down his body, not fading.

Paralysis. Speed cut by half, with a chance to prevent movement as the muscles in the body seized up and became immobile. Bad for nearly any Pokémon, but great for her as a challenger.

There had been two plans she had in mind. Dual typed Pokémon with ground and rock types were common enough, and would be guaranteed in use. The question was what to do when there was a mono-typed Pokémon present for her at the gym, or a rock and some other type.

Ground would make Sekhmet's electricity useless in battle, that she knew. But if there was any chance that the Shinx could fight in battle, Dawn wanted her to fight for the sake of getting a chance to paralyze the foe Pokémon.

Neptune's earlier water sport buffing up the bubbles lying on the ground had been just one benefit. Its true purpose had been to make the electricity in Sekhmet's spark attack more likely to paralyze her foe. It wasn't a soak attack, but it did make it easier to circulate the electricity and gave them an edge.

She was lucky. She should have done some more research on Roark and figured out just what specific Pokémon he used instead of his type specialty. If she had, then she would have seen that he used fossil Pokémon. She would have – should have – then further researched said fossil Pokémon until she knew more about it.

She hadn't. And she was lucky, to be getting away from it pretty well.

"Spark again."

Sekhmet hit him again, this time in the side, and Levi stumbled, looking dazed. One more hit, and he would be down.

The gym leader knew that. "Potion break!" Roark called to the referee. He sprayed his Cranidos over with the medicine from a purple bottle, giving him a pat on his head for his effort. "I'm sorry I can't use a full restore," he apologized to the dedicated Pokémon that had held off evolution just so he could help Roark in lower-levelled gym battles. "But this _is_ supposed to be a first-badge battle. Think you can bear the paralysis?"

Levi butted his knee lightly.

"That's a boy," Roark stepped back as his Pokémon re-entered the field.

Across the field, Dawn weighed her options. Sekhmet still looked healthy despite the headbutt and the stealth rock, but a critical hit could do anything from severely weakening to actually knocking her out. That, and she had no idea what other moves the Cranidos knew.

"Hit him with a spark!" she ordered. Sekhmet ran up, covering her body with electricity before hitting him again.

"Pursuit!"

Levi made to follow Sekhmet, but winced and stopped in his tracks. Dawn loved paralysis. "Spark, one more time!"

Sekhmet scurried to face the back of Levi while he was down. Bright sparks surrounded her body one last time as she threw it forward in an electric tackle. Levi cried out, fell onto his knees and stayed like that for a while, staring off at the rock walls of the gym.

Dawn was about to order another spark to finish him off when Roark stiffened. He held out the ball to return his Cranidos just as the fossil Pokémon fell over in a faint.

She had won. "We won," she said, stunned.

And then it sunk in. "We won! We won our first badge!" she let Neptune out of his ball as well and grabbed his flippers. "We won!" she tried to lift him in a hug but thought better of it when she realized he was more than half her height, and probably just as heavy.

"Well, this is embarrassing," Roark said mildly, readjusting his helmet. "I went and lost to a Pokémon trainer without a single badge . . . ."

Dawn stopped her celebrations. "Isn't that kind of your job?"

He sighed. "I get no respect. Well, that's just tough for me. You were strong, I was weak and that's all there is to it."

"_We_ were strong," Dawn corrected before going back to hugging Neptune and Sekhmet. She wailed a bit when Neptune, foregoing his pride for just this occasion, tackled her down in a hug. "You're _heavy_!" she screeched, but she was laughing.

Roark raised an eyebrow. So she was more connected to her Pokémon than he had expected. Well then, maybe it wasn't so bad losing to her on her first try. After all, she had shown herself capable of improvising despite an evolution directly prior to the match, and she hadn't been arrogant enough to attempt to sweep him with one Pokémon.

He cleared his throat to catch her attention. "According to league rules, I must now award you with a badge since you've beaten me in an official match."

Dawn eyed him warily. "But?"

"What but? There is no but to this. Here's the Coal Badge – congratulations."

She muttered under her breath – he was a troll, setting her up like that – but took the badge anyways. The Coal Badge was twice as big as her thumb, and looked like a simplified version of a mining cart filled to the brim. The lines shaping it were shining silver, but the coloured metal was a polished bole.

It felt good holding it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Here, take this too."

It was a TM. "Stealth rock? That move you used?"

Roark nodded. "Helpful in the very beginning of a battle to set up and hurt your opponents throughout the entire round whenever they switch out or bring in a new Pokémon."

Now that she remembered just what it was supposed to do, she could think of a few places where the TM could come in handy. She wouldn't forget what it did now, she hoped. "Thank you."

Roark smiled at her. "Just don't get overconfident. There are seven other gym leaders in Sinnoh, all of whom will be tougher than I was. Each badge will be harder and harder to earn."

"Doesn't that just make everything cheery," she said dryly.

Now Roark laughed. "Had to warn you," he said. "Good luck out there, Dawn – although you probably don't need it as much as others."

"Oh, thanks."

* * *

><p>After a celebratory dinner out at a local diner, they were back at the Oreburgh center for the night. "Hope you don't mind dropping by to Twinleaf on the way," she began, but stopped at what she saw.<p>

Neptune was lying face down on her bed, groaning slightly while Sekhmet walked back and top over his back. "Are you giving him a massage?" she asked.

The sounds she received were mostly affirmative.

Dawn decided to ask the receptionist about this. "If your Prinplup evolved recently, it may simply be a few sore muscles," the nurse at the counter explained. "It's like growth pains."

"Growth pains, huh?" Dawn couldn't say she had experienced many of those, given her shortness. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

The receptionist gave her a smile. "Well, from what you've told me, your Shinx is helping with that. _I_, personally, have never heard of a Shinx giving a massage to another Pokémon, but, well, I'm sure it's not the first. Still, try feeding him an oran berry or two in the morning. The breakfast bar should be stocked with fruit."

"Okay. Thank you."

When she came back, Neptune was now stretching his leg while Sekhmet slept, curled up on the dresser.

Maybe she had imagined the whole thing. Dawn put the letter for her mom in the pre-stamped envelope. Then, after digging out the papers the professor had given her, she went through the thick booklet until she found the information regarding Neptune. He was two years old – so he had experience, and that was why he had evolved so soon after joining her.

She snapped a picture of them with her Pokédex, wrote an email to Lyra in response to her message and went to sleep after an hour of studying.

* * *

><p>AN: I forgot to mention, but pixiv's 清順（トンボ) has this awesome series based off the FRLG games with a hint of the anime and other games mixed in. It is so awesome and in Japanese but I read scanlations off a Korean blog. This amazing masterpiece has been a great source of inspiration, mostly for me to complete <span>Titanium<span> and make its universe as in-depth and connected as it is. I also got some ideas off of it, which I'll credit when they pop up. Check it out if you ever get the chance.

Also, for the record,_ I'm not very good at writing battles_. This is my attempt at trying to not do just "he bubbled and she sparked while Roark dawdled and did next to nothing", or just calling out names of moves by turn like the games would have us do. I am not a strategy-producing genius. The more advanced ones will be inspired by Smogon (but will be bland), and the less advanced ones will probably be more bland.


	6. An Edge of the Galaxy

A.S.107

July 6th

_Prof. R. has a surprising sense of humour._

* * *

><p>"Is Dawn Steele here?" Barry asked the receptionist the first thing in the morning. Ditching Dawn had been an interesting experience. Initially, it had been liberating in a way because it was every person for themselves (Dawn had broken him and his dad of the habit of saying 'every man for himself'). No more did they have to stick together for safety; they were trainers now, responsible and capable.<p>

Once the initial rush wore off, though, Barry had found that he didn't actually think hanging with Dawn was an obligation. No one made him do things he didn't want to do, and it had never been obligation making him slow down for Dawn to catch up with him. Dawn was his friend – that was why he spent so much time with her. Leaving her alone felt wrong, especially when he knew all-too well that she'd just be much slower without him there to egg her on. It felt like he was abandoning his sister.

Now that would be unbearable.

But he didn't want to have to go with her the entire way. He was a lone man, depending on no one to make his way in the world, just like his father had been. Dawn was his best friend, but he knew she'd end up mothering him. He couldn't do that if he wanted to catch up to his dad.

He could, he decided in the end, check on her constantly. With his speed it was more than possible to do that and make sure she was safe while spending time with her.

So, after catching a Ponyta and naming him Camarero, he had hightailed it back to Oreburgh to start checking on Dawn. By then, it had been around nine in the evening, and she didn't answer his messages so he assumed she was asleep.

The Jubilife nurse hadn't been too happy when he had asked her a lot of questions in the night, so he had been trying to avoid making the same mistake and risking the wrath of a stressed, nearly overworked nurse brought down on his head again in different cities.

Luckily for him, this nurse had just drunk her favourite cup of coffee. "Hmm," she said, typing something into the computer in front of her. "It says here that she just checked out five minutes ago."

"Okay thank you bye!" he shouted and ran out. Starling flew after him, and Champ loped as fast as he could before his trainer remembered him. "Sorry, dude," he apologized, picking up the turtle and running. Champ, near evolution, was heavy, but Barry still insisted on carrying him himself.

He managed to catch up to her in front of Oreburgh. "Hey! Dawn!"

She turned around, bag hanging from her shoulder. It was only then did he realize that he was still running.

Cue crash.

Thud!

"_Oww_ . . . ." they chorused, Dawn rubbing her back and Barry hopping on one leg, the pain in his knee flaring for a moment. Champ, luckily uninjured in the impact, snickered.

"Whoops," he said. "Dawn! You're leaving town already? Don't tell me . . ." his mouth split into a huge smile. "You got the gym badge!"

The pain of being knocked over was something she was far too used to, and her happiness at her victory came back fresh in her mind again. "Yeah!" she showed off her shining new badge.

"Awesome!" he did a little dance. "Looks like I was worried about you for nothing."

Dawn snorted a bit. "_You_ worry about _me_? That'll be the day."

"Meh," he stuck his tongue out. "Hey, so, I'm going to Eterna next! What about you?"

"We're doing the same," Dawn said. "I want to enter the beginner's tournament in Jubilife first, and Eterna's the closest gym after that."

"Nuh-uh," Barry corrected her gleefully. "Canalave is."

"Closest gym that we're ready to face," Dawn added to her words. "Canalave specializes in steel types, so I thought we'd head for Eterna – easier to face when we're still beginning and all."

That, and it was better for them to take advantage of the warmth summer provided to travel to northern regions of Sinnoh. If it didn't stay year-round, snow always came early and stacked up to the point where travel became difficult. It was much better, his father had said, to grab the badges from the higher cities like Eterna and Veilstone now, and then visit lower areas in autumn and winter. Both of them had also been advised against Snowpoint for an early badge, because the route there was too difficult for a new trainer with only a few Pokémon.

He'd come back to check on her, and she was fine, just fine. No one had to worry. "I better see you there soon," Barry said, confident that she could take care of herself. "Next stop – the Eterna gym badge! Ten seconds before I dash! Nine!"

"Since when did you get a countdown?" Dawn asked.

He thought for approximately a nanosecond. "You're right! Bah, who has _time_ to count?!" he ran off, charging headfirst into the Oreburgh Gate's cave.

Behind him, Dawn decided to take a more leisurely walk. "So Champ hasn't evolved yet," she said. "Well, Neptune, it looks like you're outgrowing everyone. Are you older than Champ? Maybe it's because you're more mature that you evolved so soon-"

Then her leisurely walk came to a dead stop as she screeched to a halt and clapped her hands together. "I forgot to ask Roark what being square meant!"

Neptune slapped a flipper to his head.

* * *

><p>Lucas smiled when he checked his Pokédex. He had managed to tag and capture a sample of all the native species in the area, including even the elusive, constantly-teleporting Abra. "That was thanks to you," he told Charlotte, who blushed and chattered modestly. "No, really! If it weren't for you taunting him, I don't know how I would have caught that Abra."<p>

Charlotte chattered a bit and moved onto his other shoulder, a complete shift in personality from the cackling Chimchar she'd been while using taunt on that psychic type. He patted her warm head. She was really an amazing little soul. It was like she could read his mind and know just when his left shoulder grew tired, or how much he wanted to catch Pokémon to fill out his Pokédex and strived to help him fulfil his goal. "Thank you," he said. She trusted him despite the fact that the two of them were no longer in a contained, controlled environment. He couldn't have been luckier with his first Pokémon.

"Well isn't that sweet," a voice sneered. Lucas looked up to see two men in odd uniforms approach him. Their clothes and hair – straight, style-less and identical cuts – reminded him of an army, but their slouches and dirty teeth told him that these were more of a gang or delinquents than anything.

Agent Looker's words came to his mind – words of warning and caution. Words that, at the time, hadn't sounded like they would ever really be useful for him.

Fate, apparently, was an ironic mistress. "A widdle twainah an' his pwecious Pokémon," one of the guys made a kissy face as he imitated a cartoon character's speaking style.

His partner laughed and Lucas backed up a bit, wary. He may have captured a few Pokémon, but his strongest remained Charlotte, who would most likely still be outmatched and outnumbered. "I don't want any trouble," he told them in the most placating voice he could pull up. He raised his hands up to show that they were empty and not bunched up in a threatening fist.

"We don't either," the man dropped his baby voice. "You! You're Professor Rowan's assistant, aren't you?"

Lucas eyed them warily. He hadn't done anything wrong – as far as he knew – and the professor wasn't the type to get into trouble with the likes of these.

This was exactly what Agent Looker had warned him about. "Yes," he answered carefully, hoping to catch a glimpse of the brown trench coat, hoping to catch a sight of the police, hoping for someone, anyone to come by.

The other guy gave him a very unpleasant smile. His teeth were uneven and stained. "We just wanna talk with your boss," he said. "See, we have something we need to tell the old man. And you're gonna help us."

"Then you can go and make an appointment with the lab in Sandgem," Lucas told them as politely as he could while trying to back away. "An assistant is available from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, and messages may be left overnight-"

"See, kid, we don't want to do that," the first one, the one Lucas thought was slightly smarter, lifted his hands in a 'what-can-you-do' gesture as he interrupted. "So we were hoping you could help us. Or, Dialga and Palkia forbid, something bad might happen to that cute little Chimchar. Or even worse, you."

They were threatening him. And not very subtly. "Look, I'm just a kid," he said, still trying to back away. Of all the times for there to be no one around him . . . .

Could he run fast enough?

"Exactly. So, what do you say, _kid_?"

"I . . ." he remembered the two kids that the professor had given Pokémon to. The other boy Barry, bright and energetic, ready to face the world. The girl Dawn, considerably more moderate than her friend but strong in a quieter kind of way, with fierce ambitions. Both of them came from impressive families, but they weren't riding on the tailcoats of their famous parents. There was something about them that told Lucas that the two of them would be great, and it wasn't just Professor Rowan approving of them.

Professor Rowan had seen it too. And, since the professor had given Lucas a Pokémon as well, could Professor Rowan have seen a possibility of greatness in Lucas?

What would those two have done?

Probably taught the punks a lesson for looking down at them. For _looking_ at them in the wrong way.

Lucas clenched his fist. He could be great, too. He _had_ to be great, if he wanted to become a better person – a successful person. "I can't help you," he said in what was hopefully a polite but firm voice.

They just sneered at him. "Then we'll have to use force," the second one said and reached for him with an outstretched hand. He stumbled back, and Charlotte squeaked in fear. She spat out an ember that singed the tips of his hair as it flew past his head. It didn't hit the hand reaching for him, but landed near their feet and made them hesitate.

Just for a split second. Nothing too long – it was, after all, simple instinct to stop when there was fire, to cautiously gauge the environment for more possible dangers.

Lucas didn't let any of that split second go to waste. He ran, shouting for Charlotte to grab on tighter. He screamed for help. He screamed that there was a fire – which there was. Looker the Interpol agent had told him that people were more likely to react when someone screamed 'fire' rather than anything else. What else had the man told him?

"Get back here, you little punk!" one of them screamed, and through the pounding of his feet and heart he heard their heavier feet beat the ground in a tempo faster than his.

Fear filled his veins. They would catch up to him. They were angry, and they wanted something that he probably couldn't give them. He wasn't sure what the two of them would do to him, but –

_Relax, Lucas. I've got you now._

A hand grabbed his shoulder, but it didn't belong to the men after him. Lucas looked just in time to see three yellow fingers on his shoulder before his vision flashed and changed to a slightly different setting. Dazed, he looked up to see the back of Professor Rowan, standing firm. They were only a few feet from where they had been, but it was much better. A broad, well-lit street rather than the dark alley he had been about to get cornered into.

Lucas turned his head to see the professor's Alakazam. "Thanks, Albert," he said shakily. The psychic Pokémon must have teleported him out of the two men's reach.

Albert was Professor Rowan's main method of transportation long distances in short spans of time, as the professor didn't like to fly to his destinations. While most ways of travel related to teleporting in areas excluding Pokémon Centers was restricted by League Wards and other Pokémon capable of disabling teleportation in, Professor Rowan had been granted special privileges for everything he had given to the Sinnoh region, as well as who he was.

It helped that Albert was a powerful psychic Pokémon. He had been a member of the Professor's main team from his Champion days, and Lucas had once seen him intimidate an entire herd of Mightyena into submission without so much as batting an eye.

Never mind about releasing all of the Pokémon he had just captured. He was going to keep the Abra. The sight of Albert's calm gaze in that moment was _inspiring_, to say the least.

_It was no problem, Lucas. Are you unharmed?_

"Yeah," he said, patting a slightly panicked Charlotte to calm her down. Somehow, repeating the motions over and over again, feeling the shudders going through her tiny warm body calmed him down as well. "Yeah, now we're good."

Now he and Charlotte were out of immediate danger.

But the men responsible weren't too unhappy. They now had what they had been after from the moment they had engaged with Lucas – an audience with the professor. "Professor Rowan," the first guy said in a mockingly polite voice. "Just the man we wanted to see."

* * *

><p>Jubilife was bustling with people when she entered its boundaries. "Stay close," she warned Neptune and Sekhmet. "I don't want you separated or stolen."<p>

"Excellent sentiments for a trainer."

"Gah!" she jumped. There, behind her, in the brown duster and the intense look, was Looker the globe-trotting Interpol agent. From the startled looks on both Neptune and Sekhmet's faces, they hadn't seen or heard him approach either. "You scared me!"

Looker gave her a severe look that was serious to the point of comedic. "Madam, I did no such thing. You overreacted."

Her lips twitched, partly at being called 'madam' – it sounded so _old_ – but mostly because he was pinning the blame on her, when it was all clearly his fault. "_No_, you came up to me unannounced and randomly said something -"

"I assure you, scaring you was not my intent."

That didn't change the fact that he had still shocked her, but she gave up. There was no point in arguing this. "So, did you find your shady people?" she asked instead, trying to change the conversation.

It worked. Looker shook his head. "There appears to be no shady people in Jubilife," he said. "Excluding the illegal salesmen of recreational drugs and stolen goods, of course, but I have already reported them to the local police."

"So you're not after shady salesmen selling stuff?"

"No," Looker stuffed his hands into his coat pockets. "Therefore, I shall have to take my investigation elsewhere. But, my friend, I suggest you remain vigilant for shady grown-ups!"

Dawn decided to not tell him that he was a 'shady grown-up' in her eyes. "I'll do that," she promised him instead.

Looker the Interpol guy nodded, and then melted back into the moving stream of people in the city. Soon she couldn't even tell where he was. "That guy's just weird," she sighed.

Neptune and Sekhmet, both recognizing him from pre-Prinplup days, nodded in agreement.

Her supplies were still well-stocked and both members of her team were in good health. "Maybe we can drop by home," Dawn suggested. "And there's a tournament in a few days, so we could participate in that. Should be good experience for all of us, practicing in official matches. We could head over and go over regulations now – we should have at least two more hours before the public arenas close.

"Unless," she added. "You're hungry."

Neptune gave her a 'meh' look, and Sekhmet shook her head. Just in case, she dropped by a vendor and bought three hot dogs. Neptune pecked at his and wrinkled his brow at the mustard, but Sekhmet scarfed it down. "You have a little ketchup," Dawn said, stifling her laughter at the sight of her battle-hungry Shinx with food on her fur like a little baby. "Around your mouth. Hold still."

She wiped it off with the napkin the stall owner had given her. "Kind of looks like blood," she noted. "Sekhmet, goddess of war, conqueror of Starly, ketchup-stained mouth."

Sekhmet butted her head against Dawn's knee, but it was more playful than anything. "I'll buy you another hot dog next time," she promised the Shinx. Neptune, after trying out different condiments, decided that the sweet and sour sauce made the tolerable hot dog a delicious meal.

There were a few public centers with arenas open for trainers seeking practice. They headed to the nearest one, which was near the Jubilife TV Station. A bit more up north past the broadcasting building and they were at the entrance of the city facing Route 204, where there seemed to be a standoff going on. Neptune straightened a bit and gestured frantically at the group of people. "Isn't that the professor?" she asked him, recognizing the beard even from the distance. There was also a red hat-wearing head shaped like bread next to him, and a yellow Pokémon she recognized as an Alakazam. "And Lucas too, right?"

They were being confronted – for the lack of a better word – by two guys in weird silver clothes and hair. The two had hair the colour of sick teal, and as if that wasn't bad enough, had bowl cuts. "They look like astronauts," she muttered as they jogged up to the professor. "Or aliens. Like the ones from cheap budget movies."

"Now, now, now, now, now!" one of the mystery guys said as they approached. "Professor Rowan, you must comply!"

"At the risk of sounding clichéd, I refuse to hand over my research to the likes of you. Especially 'for free', as you so eloquently put it," the professor's deep voice made the statement sound all the more dry and sarcastic. Behind him, the Alakazam idly twirled the spoons in its hands, a gesture mirrored with Poké balls by the two facing them. Lucas looked tense and worried, and the Chimchar on his shoulder looked scared.

Two against two. She could see what this was – two sleazy shady guys trying to coerce people into doing what they wanted.

Well, cowards never fared well against larger numbers, and seeing how these two were sleazy, she would bet that they were cowards. "Hey, what's going on here?" she demanded with as much bravado as she could muster up, stepping over in the side closer to the professor and Lucas to show that her support would lie with them. "Any trouble, professor? Lucas?"

The two men eyed Dawn, appraising her for any threats she might pose, but didn't back away. So her shortness and youth still negated what threat an extra number would do. Shame. For them, that was, because she would totally make them regret underestimating her.

"Now now," the guy that had been speaking said. "We don't want any trouble, but if you don't comply, well, your assistant may go through quite a painful time."

The professor pointedly ignored him. "Ah, Dawn," he said to her as if his assistant hadn't just been threatened. "How is your Pokédex progressing?"

Both she and Lucas nearly did a double take. Of all the things to ask in the current situation –

When the professor gave her a look that told her to play along, she caught onto it. "Umm, well, I only caught one," she cringed at the disappointed look the professor gave her. Weren't they only making small talk to annoy and distract the weirdoes? "But! I did _see_ a lot of Pokémon while battling, and Neptune evolved into a Prinplup! I promise I kept close records of them both. Oh, and I challenged the gym and saw a Cranidos, so I picked up some information off there."

She was babbling. She tried to slow down her tongue from flapping unnecessarily.

"The gym, you say?" he asked her, listening _and_ keeping an eye on the two weirdoes, both of whom were steaming at being ignored. Multitasking like a _boss_. "And did you win?"

Dawn puffed out her chest, just a bit. "Yes we did, sir!"

"And I've only given you your first Pokémon what, two weeks ago . . . I am impressed on your progress. Perhaps being a trainer is like a second nature to you."

She beamed at the compliment.

The weird man who had been speaking took a deep breath before sighing theatrically. "Oh, Professor of Pokémon!" he cried out. "Why must you be so difficult?"

"Because you have no business with me," he replied flatly, jerking his head slightly at her. She got the message and stood behind him, although both Neptune and Sekhmet looked ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"We are _speaking_ to you on business. _This_," Weirdo Number One gestured extensively at the empty air, conveying nothing, "is work for us. What we're saying is – we _demand_ you comply with our demands."

"Yes, I understood what you were saying the _first_ time you said it," the professor said rather edgily.

"Then you should-"

Lucas braced himself when he saw the professor take a sharp intake of breath. "Quiet, you lot!" the professor snapped, patience apparently all used up now. Lucas relaxed – the outburst hadn't been as loud as his roar. "Why must you be such a nuisance? Let me list some lessons you still need to learn, since obviously the two of you combined lack a single brain in total."

"Oh_, burn_," Dawn _had_ to add that. She just did.

The professor ignored her, but she didn't hold him to that. He was a bit busy burning them. "_One_, don't loiter around for no good reason. _Two_, don't interrupt others while they are attempting to converse about matters more important than your useless lives. _Three_, if you don't get your way, don't raise your voice in a pathetic attempt at intimidation. _Four_, don't think you've grown strong just because you happen to be in a group. And _five_!"

Professor Rowan's voice had been growing steadily with each lesson that lashed out at the two like whips, and by now the two were cowering slightly. _His_ voice rising, obviously, was not a pathetic attempt at intimidation.

Dawn expected something about showing respect. Evidently, these two men had forgotten that the white-haired man with the thick beard in front of them had been Champion once – if they hadn't, then they had wrongly assumed that he was no longer a threat, or that they could take him easily. She expected him to show that he was still capable of being a very dangerous threat, or something along that line. That even if he had retired from his position, even if he had donned a lab coat instead of a champion's mantle, even if his Elite Four family was ragged and missing a member, he was still strong.

Dawn supposed, in hindsight later on, that she had expected him to be too dramatic and personal. Of course he wouldn't use himself as an example. Those were memories to be treasured and kept close to the heart, or personal in nature at the very least. He had no reason or desire to share them with two scumbags who didn't have the brains and the sensibility to treat him respect, all for the sake of teaching them a lesson.

And he had a better fifth reason, anyways. His next words blew everything out of the metaphorical water.

"_What_ is with those _outlandish_ outfits you misfits call _clothes_?! Palkia," he shook his head in disgust. "And you call yourselves _adults_ while dressed so ridiculously?"

Startled at the fact that the stoic professor was apparently a member of the fashion police, Dawn let out a hysterical burst of laughter. Lucas caught the giggle Burmy as well and soon the two of them were laughing.

The laughter must have done a lot to hurt their ego because the two of them coloured and straightened themselves in an attempt to be intimidating. One of them tried to speak, but the professor had gone back to ignoring them to face his two field assistants. "You kids," he said in a considerably softer, but still very audible, clear and pointed voice. "Don't grow up to be like these sorry specimens."

"Yes sir!" Dawn chirped, and was echoed by a now-smiling Lucas.

The two spacemen had tamato-red faces now. "Eeeh!" the one that hadn't spoken exclaimed loudly. Obviously he hadn't paid much attention to lesson number three. "You had to make this personal!"

His partner remained a bit cooler-headed. "You have forced our hand into making a show of force," he announced dramatically.

"I doubt you have enough force to lift a baby's pacifier," the professor said scornfully.

The cooler-headed guy growled. "We will make you regret insulting Team Galactic."

Dawn snickered a bit at the name, and after a bit Lucas joined in. Even the professor's beard tugged a bit as he smiled. "You kids," he said, catching their attention. "Give these thugs a lesson in civility, please."

_Nathaniel, I could take them,_ the Alakazam offered thoughtfully, the spoons bending and straightening without anything visible forcing their change in shape as a dreamy expression came over his intelligent face.

"You could easily do so," the professor agreed as he stepped back. "But it would show these sorry excuses of adults just how weak and pathetic they are if two children could take them on easily."

The Alakazam shrugged his bony shoulders in agreement and joined him on the sidelines. Despite the casual way he had stepped back, though, his eyes were shining keenly, watching over them all. One flash of a future caused by the wrong choice or a threat, and he would get the kids out to deal with the menace himself.

Lucas slid over to her, Charlotte in his arms. "Join me in battle against these guys?" he asked, feeling a lot more confident. The professor thought that the two of them could handle these weird men easily by themselves. If the professor believed in them, then Lucas felt that he could believe in himself.

"You got it. Neptune!"

"Charlotte!"

Neptune was ready with a swagger. Charlotte, picking up confidence from Lucas, was determined.

The grunts saw a Pokémon battle with two kids. They must have figured that it would be easy to defeat them.

"I'll block their sight," Dawn muttered to Lucas under her breath. "Have Charlotte hit them while they're flailing."

Lucas nodded. He didn't seem like a full-time battling trainer, but he was smart. He saw where she was going and smoothly went along with her efforts.

The men dressed like space cosplayers were in for a surprise, if they underestimated them. Neptune bubbled the Stunky and Glameow sent out, obscuring their view. He couldn't exactly use water sport while he was battling with Charlotte, but the bubbles were doing their jobs just fine.

While the two tried to claw away the hindrance to sight, taking damage as they did so, Charlotte shot precise embers at the Glameow as it tried to come through the bubbles, aiming at the face. The cat shrieked as it was burnt, and rolled on the asphalt in an attempt to get it out, ignoring its trainer's orders. "Take out the Stunky!" she called to Lucas.

He gave a nod. "Right!"

Neptune's pound and Charlotte's scratch instantly KO'd the Stunky, and the remaining bubbles dealt away with the burned Glameow.

One of the men grabbed the other. "We lost to two kids!" he hissed loudly.

"Shut up!" his partner hissed back before turning to them as they recalled their fainted Pokémon. "You leave us no option," he said, salvaging what little pride he had left. "We will retreat for now, because Team Galactic is belligerent to all."

"That's 'benevolent', fool," Professor Rowan corrected.

The Team Galactic member glowered at him, but didn't dare do anything else. Not when Neptune and Charlotte were still very much ready to attack, and certainly not when Sekhmet and the Alakazam stood at standby. Instead, they ran off up north.

"And good riddance," the professor muttered. "That lot, calling themselves Team Galactic and making fools of themselves . . . ."

"What were they after?" she asked him.

Professor Rowan sighed. "Information. When Pokémon evolve, they seem to release a strange type of energy."

Remembering Neptune glowing like a supernova, she nodded.

"I believe that this energy is a mystic force, a power far beyond our control with what we have now. However," he continued. "I have taken it upon myself to research everything possible about this energy. But this Team Galactic . . . they were demanding that I hand over every research I have made on this phenomenon. It seems that they, too, are studying the potential that power may have, wanting to harness it somehow."

"And it's a bad thing they get this information because . . . ."

He gave her a very tiny smile, just visible through the beard and in the wrinkles in the skin around the eye. "Because there is no way on this good earth that anyone dressed like that is sensible in their mind."

Dawn laughed. So the professor, gruff and scary at times, had an awesome sense of humour.

"Sir, I . . . ." Lucas fidgeted when Dawn quieted down. "I'm sorry that I couldn't fend them off myself, sir." On the ground, Charlotte hung her head in shame.

The professor simply patted his shoulder. "You did just fine, Lucas. Thanks to you – and Dawn – nothing came out of that situation. I appreciate both your support, and I'm more relieved that you weren't hurt."

She offered Lucas a high-five. He took it, and gave her a hesitant smile that was far less awkward than any from before.

"Incidentally, Dawn," the professor moved on, "kudos to your battling skills. You seem to be quite talented as a trainer. It's only been, what, two weeks since you started out, and you've already won your first badge."

"Thank you, sir," she ducked her head. "But it's really thanks to Neptune and Sekhmet here. They get along great with me. If it weren't for that, we wouldn't be half as great."

"That's an excellent mindset. Never lose it." Professor Rowan coughed into a fist and nodded his approval. "I wish you luck upon your journey. Lucas, I do believe we were about to head back to Sandgem before those plebeians wasted our time."

Lucas gave her a wave that she returned, and the two grabbed onto the Alakazam's extended hands before they were teleported out of sight.

* * *

><p>AN: I love Professor Rowan. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's just my Sinnoh favouritism, but whatever the reason I love him so much.<p>

A friend and I noticed this the other day. There's one way to judge whether Prof. R or Professor Oak is the better professor - look at their students. Elm VS Sycamore. I think the answer's obvious.


	7. Shining Red on Flowers

A.S.107

July 10th

_I ran into T.G. again today. What exactly are they up to?_

* * *

><p>There might not have been public Champions – the <em>Champion<em> Champion, that was, the one that was strong enough to pass Victory Road's trial and defeat the Elite Four – but there were still tournaments that were public. Much like most regions with a League system, the League-run tournament ranks were nicknamed after types of Poké balls. Poké Ball tournaments were for the beginners, the ones with one to three badges, called 'third tier' officially. Trainers with four to seven badges were eligible for the Super Ball tournaments, officially the second tier, referred to as 'Junior' ranks. Eight and more badges won the trainer the right to enter the first tier Ultra Ball tournaments – the senior or 'Elite' rank.

Poké Ball tournaments were held frequently in cities, once every two months in larger settlements and three for small. Great Ball had a bit more time in between, at an average of four a year for each city, and Ultra Balls were biannual to annual.

Depending on the region, the locals called them by a nickname. In Johto, where Lyra lived, the more famous tournaments were nicknamed after apricorn balls in honour of the master craftsman Kurt, one of Johto's living treasures. Unova named theirs differently, going by titles such as Monster, Super and Hyper balls.

Then there were tournaments that weren't run by the League, sponsored and held privately, were 'unrestricted' – anyone could enter, whether the trainer had one or ten badges. Those were held far more frequently, and while they counted for less in terms of trainer credits, they were still immensely popular, and unofficially ranked first, second or third tiers, depending on their average difficulty.

In tournaments, League-run or private, more serious trainers got together and pitted their hard-worked Pokémon against each other, testing out strategies and picking out flaws they had missed in the blueprints. Depending on how well they had performed and how far the trainer managed to go, points were added to the trainer's account, points that spoke for their history worked as a resume and a reputation. It was a prestige thing, but it also helped to judge just how good of a trainer one was.

There were other incentives as well – sponsors and prizes – but it also served as a way to make skilled trainers into local celebrities. They were heralded as the Champion of 'insert-name-here' tournaments, and then the title was simplified as 'Champion'. The meaning of the word was being forgotten. The Champion – the Champion of Sinnoh – was losing the power attributed to the title.

In the case of the Jubilife Poké Ball Tournament, there was a minimum limit of two Pokémon. Dawn registered, let her Pokémon get healed up as a precaution and waited until the number she had been assigned – thirty-six – was called.

It wasn't a hard tournament. Most of the people were around the one-badge level, using local Pokémon like Budew, Starly, Kricketot and Bidoof. She saw a Dustox being used, but that had been in a different match, and the bug was knocked out with a lucky critical hit, making its trainer lose.

Dawn got through them without much trouble. She only lost in the finals against an older trainer, an aroma lady with a Budew and a Cherubi. She had sent out Neptune, wanting to keep Sekhmet back – she had evolved into a Luxio in the semi-finals in a battle against a girl with two evil Pachirisu twins – and ordered peck.

It had been super-effective, but not enough to knock out the small bud Pokémon. To make matters worse, Neptune had been pricked by its poison point, making it far too easy for the Budew to absorb off energy from her starter while he withered away.

Sekhmet had done well after Neptune had fainted. She had managed to charge and spark down the Budew despite the ineffectiveness and avoided the poison point altogether.

The Cherubi, sent after, had begun by making sure there was a leech seed in Sekhmet before tripping her up with grass knot. Her newly gained bulk was heavier than the form she had been used to, and that combined with her not being used to her body as a Luxio had been enough to knock Sekhmet out, giving the win – and the tournament – to her opponent.

Overall, it hadn't been too bad of an experience for her first tournament. Sekhmet had evolved, and she had won the second place title. The consolation prize – a goodie bag filled with a few Pokémon vitamins, coupons for local establishments and a TM for bullet seed – and the addition of points to her trainer's account would probably end up helping her in the long run. If there was one thing her mother had drilled into her, it was that whatever she did, Dawn was to always have some sort of history in actively engaging with the interest. If she was to follow her mom and coordinate, she had better have been in mini contests. If she wanted to be a researcher, fine, she should volunteer at the school or sign up as an assistant at the lab.

If she wanted to be a trainer? The best way to build up credentials was to get badges and win tournaments. That was how trainers earned sponsors, fame and money faster than simply beating up everyone they ran into. Sure, the Steele family would support her after she won her sixth badge as they did for all the family's trainers, but until then, and even with, she should make a name under her own right.

Dawn healed up her Pokémon, thanked them and then took them out for a treat. Not hot dogs this time, but a restaurant where a prize coupon could be redeemed for a two-in-one dinner special that was large enough to fully feed all three of them.

"We'll do better next time," she said to the two of them, and it was a promise.

* * *

><p>Sekhmet tossed her newly-grown mane for the umpteenth time. "My evolution's so much cooler than yours," she said smugly to Neptune.<p>

Those were fighting words – or, they would have been had he not been too tired to care. As it was, he just laid on the bed face down. It had been a nice day of battling, he was full and now he was drowsy. "You keep telling yourself that," he mumbled.

Sekhmet shot an annoyed look at him and stepped on his back. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"Get off, you're heavy."

She was tempted to spark the water bird, but refrained from it. Dawn had told her to save her anger and irritation and direct it towards her battles. This was pretty good irritation and anger right here. The next battle she had, she'd just remember this scene and then spark everything out. Yeah. That sounded like a good plan.

But just to teach Neptune a lesson, she charged up before letting a tiny bit of the electricity run through the paw she still had on his back. "Hey!" he protested, but by then she had slinked off of him, grin wide on her face.

Electricity ruled.

* * *

><p>Floaroma was a quaint little town, even more so than Twinleaf, and that was saying a lot. It was the kind of town where people smiled even when they didn't know who the person across the street was; where locals handed out homemade goodies to each other for no particular reason just because they could and because they were in a baking mood. It was essentially a town where everyone was grateful for everything in the truly genuine, from-the-heart way. Grandmothers knitted sweaters that their offspring actually wore without being forced to and had houses bursting with the fragrance of flowers. Kids grew up healthy and friendly and a jar of honey solved every problem.<p>

And in the morning of the day after arriving, she saw this in full effect.

"Nice place," Dawn said as someone gave her a little souvenir – a technical machine for pluck – for coming to Floaroma Town. Being the hoarder she was, she placed it into the section of her bag deemed for TMs. As someone from a small, friendly town herself, she could appreciate this kind of thing.

Sekhmet sneezed as they walked into town. The town had no asphalt anywhere – it was all flowers, or grass, or a few worn dirt paths in between fields. The perfume of summer blossoms where everywhere, hanging over everything like the blue of the day's sky. It was like a scene out of a movie. Several scenes from several movies, as the town was a popular place to film at.

"You're not allergic to flowers, are you?" Dawn asked her newly evolved Luxio. It was the fourth day since the tournament, and now Sekhmet was used to her new body.

She only sniffed, pointedly keeping her nose away from the blooms.

After picking up some supplies at the mart – no one inside was lacking a smile, she noticed – they dropped by the Pick a Peck of Colours Flower Shop. Dawn wondered how a flower shop survived in a town that seemed to be made of flowers, but it turned out they did more than just sell flowers. They also held high tea sessions – hugely popular and had to be booked in advance – grew berries and flowers too delicate to survive out in the wild and made decorations using the abundance of flowers in Floaroma.

"Although," one of the ladies there said. "Even if we _did_ only sell flowers, the town would probably buy some just to help us get by."

Dawn bought some flower accessories and three cupcakes, guaranteed to be safe for both human and Pokémon consumption. The clerk smiled at her and chirped out a perky "Thank you!"

The people were definitely relaxed and friendly. The local tournament – the Heal Ball Cup – was only for trainers with four to seven badges, meaning she couldn't enter, although she could watch and learn some strategies. It wasn't until the afternoon, though, leaving her with free time.

One girl suggested heading over to either Route 205 or Valley Windworks to train. "Both are nice," she said, "although, seeing that you've already gotten a water type and an electric type, going to Route 205 is probably going to be better and less time consuming. Unless, of course, you wanted to train as much as possible, in which case, hit them both."

It was nice of her to inform her. Taking her advice, they headed out of town after dropping off a postcard for her mom as they munched on their cupcakes. Just sweet enough without going overboard. Her mother couldn't have done better. But then again, cupcakes had never been something her mom was good at making anyways. Muffins were more up her alley. "I'm going back for another one the next time I come here," Dawn swore as she threw the cupcake wrapper into a trash can nearby.

"Excuse me!"

Dawn looked up. A little girl – shorter than even her, which was quite the feat – ran up to her. The girl was grubby, with her clothes stained and hair messy. She looked like she was about to cry. "Are you a-a trainer?" she hiccoughed.

"Yes."

That broke the dam for her. The little girl's eyes welled up like twin water spouts turned on fully, with both hot and cold water taps turned to the max. "_Help_!"

"Gah! Um, with what?"

The girl gulped several breaths of air and rubbed at her eyes. Dawn saw the area around her eyes were red, and not just from the rubbing. She had been _crying_. _Before_ this. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I-I," a tear fell down her face. "I just wanna see my papa!" she shrieked.

* * *

><p>The girl's name was Emily Borden, and her father worked as the head researcher and administrator for the Valley Windworks where clean wind energy was harvested. She lived there with him, because her mother had died a few years ago and her father had decided to take on a higher-ranking job to better support his only living family.<p>

Recently, however, a bunch of people dressed like spacemen – her exact words – had barged in, kicked Emily out but kept her father to do something. The trainers in town were occupied with the Heal Ball Cup – now ongoing – and the local police didn't think it was a big deal. The local cops, actually, were more interested in the Heal Ball Cup.

Half of the story had been from the girl's mouth. The other half had been from the manager at the Pick a Peck of Colours Flower Shop, a grandmotherly lady who knew Emily. Her help made it a lot easier for Dawn to make sense of the story being told to her.

The girl must have been exhausted, because as soon as she had spilt her story after being brought into the flower shop by Dawn she had fallen asleep.

"Can you take care of her?" she asked the clerk.

"Of course!" the woman draped a homemade quilt over Emily's sleeping shoulders. Like the police – a force of ten men with a little to a lot of flab around their guts – she didn't really believe that there was anything wrong at the Windworks, although she was worried at the state Emily was in. "But where will you be going - ?"

The bell jingled as the door shut, and Dawn was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't forgotten to pay for the tea, though. The crumpled bills lay on the table next to the half-full teacup that she hadn't finished.

* * *

><p>A bunch of people dressed like spacemen storming a place that collected energy?<p>

There couldn't be more than two groups of weirdoes like that in the Sinnoh region at the same time. It had to be the same morons who had tried to threaten Lucas and Professor Rowan back in Jubilife. Team Galactic, if she remembered correctly.

On the way to the Windworks, she saw a few of the people in the odd clothes and hairdo loitering around Route 205. So they _were_ here.

But her problem was the people in the Windworks right now. "Hey!" she shouted at the person in the same colours in front of the building. "Yeah, you!"

The grunt, given guard duty and bored out of his mind, saw a rather short girl storming up to him with blue eyes like flint. "Me what?"

"Move!" and she was about to march past him, just like that.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. "Hey, watch it, brat!"

He raised a hand as if to hit her across her face, but then Sekhmet was out, snarling and sparking, with Neptune and a shining metal claw ready to go right behind her. He took a step back. "No one can go in if they're not a part of Team Galactic," he said, keeping an eye on her Pokémon. They looked tough.

"Just watch me," she snapped when he extended an arm across the door to block her way.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" he said. "You'll have to battle me first!" After all, his foe was a little girl who didn't look that old. She couldn't possibly have the right wits to properly guide her Pokémon in battle. And then his age would kick in and he would win by sheer experience.

"I don't even have time for this," she grumbled as he sent out a Glameow. "Neptune, let's use your new move!"

Sekhmet hadn't been the only one to gain something from the battle with the twin electric squirrels of pure identical evil. Her starter stepped forwards and shot a concentrated beam of bubbles. Unlike bubble, bubble beam was focused and hit much harder. The growl the cat tried to use did nothing to stop it from being knocked out. "Like I'm supposed to win with a Pokémon like this," he muttered as he withdrew the Glameow.

Dawn was about to charge past him again when a fist flew her way. Sheer luck and shortness saved her from getting a black eye as she flinched backwards. He missed, but took advantage of her pause to dart inside the Windworks.

A dull, heavy thunk from the inside could be heard. She fumed in anger.

* * *

><p>Back when she had been eleven years old, her school had participated with an exchange program with a sister school in Johto's New Bark town. A handful of kids their age had come to stay for a week, sleeping at sponsor family's houses and attending the sister school, experiencing life in Sinnoh.<p>

Dawn's family had been one of the sponsors. The exchange student had been a bright, brown-haired girl named Lyra Sterling.

Until then, Dawn hadn't had very many girl friends. Part of that was because her best friend in the whole world had been Barry, who took up most of her attention with his hyperactive personality, but another part of that had been because she found it hard to relate to the girls in the area. Most of them thought that she was so lucky for being her mother's daughter, and/or for being a Steele.

They thought she would make a great coordinator. No, not just thought. They _expected_ her to make a great coordinator like her mother simply because they were related, they _expected_ her to be a girly girl and they _expected_ her to not be a trainer who battled.

Until then, she had preferred Barry's company to any girl friend. She tended to hold herself off from them, not giving them a chance to get in so they could tell her to be a coordinator.

Until she met Lyra.

Lyra had been politely impressed upon meeting Johanna – a model guest, she had done her research on her host's family, including the prestigious and rich Steele family of Sinnoh – but she hadn't fawned or seen them with expectations.

It was then that Dawn had let her in, and the connection had been practically instantaneous. They had an incredible lot in common, in personality if not in appearance. They both wanted to be a trainer, they both lived in small towns, they both liked watching crime genre even if they weren't really supposed to, they both didn't like math . . . .

And they were both ambitious. Lyra aimed to win all her badges in a year's time, just like the prodigious Blue and Red of Kanto had done the year before in the Seventeenth Kanto Championships, before becoming the Champion of Johto herself. _Then_ she wanted to go over to Kanto and become the first Indigo Champion – a dual champion of Kanto and Johto – from the Johto region.

Dawn wanted to become the Champion of Sinnoh. It wasn't as grandiose as dual champion, but Sinnoh didn't offer citizenships for two regions at birth. And, with the work she had cut out for her – to pull out and destroy the fear that had taken root in the world after 11/9 – it was high enough of a goal. More importantly, it was her goal – what she wanted – and that was enough.

After a week, the students from New Bark had gone back, but Dawn and Lyra had kept in touch, through instant messaging and emails, as well as the occasional video chat.

Lyra had left to go on her journey in early spring. She had told Dawn about a lot of things, such as the rivals she had picked up, the Pokémon she had caught, the battles she had had . . . .

And the people she had run into.

It was even in the news. Team Rocket, a criminal organization taken down three years ago, had been stirring again in the Kanto and Johto region. Lyra and her friends had fought them over and over again, beating them easily. Something she seemed to be doing herself, now.

It wasn't rivalry, of that Dawn was certain. Nor was it some kind of twisted envy or copying Lyra by taking down local thugs. Lyra didn't do this to show off. She did this because she believed that Team Rocket needed to be faced instead of feared or swept under the rug like a sordid affair. A part of it may have been the fact that she wanted to prove Johto could produce child geniuses like Kanto had, a few years back, but the majority of her friend's reasoning came from the wish to protect her home. That was the duty of a Champion.

And, well, there was a reason why the two of them were good friends.

But right now she had nothing to go on. It was a low chance, but maybe Emily had a key to the Windworks?

Dawn returned to the flower shop.

* * *

><p>Back in Floaroma Town, everyone had heard about Emily. Currently, berry pies, hot chocolate, stuffed animals and all sorts of comfort food were filling the flower shop.<p>

The girl still remained absolutely miserable. No one had the intention of going to the Windworks, even after Dawn explained what had happened while she was gone. Rather, they seemed too frightened to.

Dawn briefly wondered if she could get away with knocking the door down – Emily had no spare key to the Windworks – when she overheard one of the people there talking. By now the unease had spread – despite being an odd man, Mr. Borden had been a friendly person when spoken to, and Emily was a darling child. It didn't seem like there was a lie being told by the young girl, and no one could get in contact with Mr. Borden. "Spacemen, huh? There were some in the meadow up north, too."

"Wait!"

Once she heard what was going on up north, she was out of the shop like a bullet, running with Sekhmet and Neptune until they reached the wooden sign that pronounced the area as 'Floaroma Meadow'. The only thing setting the meadow apart from the town seemed to be the lack of houses.

"Hand over the honey! Team Galactic requires mass amounts of honey to lure Pokémon for the greater good!"

"I think we're in the right spot," she said.

Lo and behold, two men in Galactic colours were ganging up on an old man who had a bleeding nose. Judging from the crookedness of said nose, it looked like it was broken. "Hey!"

They were cowards, of course. "Crap, it's a witness," one of them muttered. "What do we do?"

"Whaddaya think, moron?" the other one snapped. "We can't have the brat run off for help."

"I _am_ the help," she snapped right back, resisting the urge to add 'moron'. The sheriff, along with his men, was at the tournament watching the battles. "Where's the key to the Windworks?"

They exchanged looks. "So she knows about that, too."

That apparently made her a threat in whatever they were doing. "We need to take her down."

They were cowards. They took the solution of battling her separately in an attempt to wear her down.

Unfortunately for them, that plan was foiled rather nicely by Neptune and Sekhmet's double teaming. Neptune bubble beamed the first guy's Stunky away easily, and the two Zubat belonging to the second grunt didn't last against Sekhmet's spark barrage, empowered by the misty water sport.

"This brat's tough!"

Dawn didn't much care. "Where are the _keys_?!"

She must have scared them somehow, even with her short height, because they tossed her a metal key before running away like the Houndoom of hell were after them. "Are you alright, sir?" she asked the broken-nosed guy when they were gone out of sight.

"Y-yeah," he said shakily. "T-thank you."

"No problem."

* * *

><p>After dropping off the poor guy – who turned out to be the honey merchant with the best goods around these parts – off at the flower shop as well, she ran back to the Windworks, stopping only to fill Neptune's ball with water. "Ready?" she asked her Pokémon before she unlocked the door and barged in.<p>

The grunt from earlier on, the one with the Glameow, had been sitting in a lawn chair and reading a fashion magazine with a Unovan model on the glossy cover. At the sight of her, his eyes widened and he toppled over rather comically. "What the-"

She'd seen too much of him, really. "_Move_!"

This time, he listened to her and let her by before fumbling for the communications device. "Commander Mars! We have a problem! Code, um, code yellow!"

There was a slight crackle on the other end_. "Are you telling me that we have wild Pokémon breaking into the equipment?"_ a deceptively girly voice asked, and he cringed as he realized his mix-up.

"N-no ma'am! Um, we have an intruder! A short girl, white hat, red coat, with at least a Luxio and a Prinplup!"

_"Is that so?"_ the girlish voice hummed. _"Well, in that case, I suppose I'll just have everyone else deal with her. After she is dealt with, we'll have to discuss at _great lengths_ just why you couldn't keep _one_ girl out of an impregnable fortress."_

"Y-yes ma'am."

Further in, Dawn and her Pokémon were storming through every grunt that got in her way. "I don't have time for this!" she snapped after they beat what felt like the tenth grunt and his not very well trained Pokémon.

"Is that so?"

Dawn turned around to see a red-haired lady in the odd white and gray clothes of Team Galactic, standing in a section she hadn't noticed before. Behind her were two men, both in white lab coats. The older one looked like he was where he should have been, but the younger one looked harassed.

But Dawn's main focus was on the woman. She didn't have the bowl-cut, and her dress was different from other female members so far. "Who are you?" she demanded, while making sure that her back was to a wall. She could see all sides from where attacks could come from like this, which meant that a grunt couldn't simply grab her from behind.

The woman tossed her red bob. "I am Mars, one of Team Galactic's three -"

The old man fake-coughed. She broke off in her introduction to glare at him. "_Four_ commanders," she finished, sounding particularly venomous.

"So you _are_ a member of Team Galactic," Dawn said. Commander. It was old terminology, but she was probably high-ranking. This wasn't a nest of grunts she was taking on. She had to play this perfectly.

With all the control of a child raised to behave perfectly under the limelight shone on her famous mother and family, Dawn presented a calm but confident poker face. "Why are you doing this? Why are you going around, bullying innocent people and keeping a little girl who didn't do anything from her home and father?"

The younger man's head practically whiplashed in her direction, gaunt eyes wide. "Emily," he said hoarsely. He must have been her father.

Mars ignored him, as well as the emotional appeal she had been trying to make. "We've been trying to create a world that's better than this one," she said. "But people have shown very little understanding about what we do."

"Bully innocent people?" Dawn offered, trying to tug at heartstrings.

The redhead shot her a pitying look. "You don't understand either. It's a little saddening . . ."

"I don't care," Dawn interrupted. The woman wouldn't react to empathy. Time to show just who the 'Queen Vespiquen' was. "Leave this place, and leave the people here alone. They haven't done anything to deserve what you're doing to them. You think the world's going to get better if you pick on _Floaroma_? Have you _seen_ the people there?"

Mars toyed with the fringe of her dress with calm deliberateness while Dawn maintained the glower. "Tell you what," she said at last. "Let's have a battle to decide just what we do. If _I_ win, _you_ leave."

"And when _I_ win, _you_ leave and never come back here," Dawn supplemented, getting the last word. "Deal."

The commander made some 'move-away' gestures at the grunts. A few of them carried some machines and laptops away. "What are they doing?"

"Just making sure nothing gets destroyed in the crossfire," Mars replied smoothly.

Dawn saw her move as if she was gliding, so confident and sure. Mars really believed that she would win.

Well, so did she.

"Zubat, go!"

Sekhmet was on her left, Neptune on her right. The advantage was with her Luxio, and so she sent her forwards. "Spark," she ordered.

A spark easily took it down, and Mars returned it graciously. "Purugly!"

The round, gray feline came out, hissing and spitting in an attempt to intimidate. Sekhmet returned the favour with a loud yowl and charged.

Mars smirked. "Fake out!"

The Purugly raised a paw, and then smacked Sekhmet's face with its tail. Stunned, her Luxio skidded backwards. "It's okay!" Dawn called, trying to snap her out of the flinch. "Spark!"

"Scratch!"

Sekhmet hissed as the paw caused damage against her side, but she barrelled into the Purugly with her body encased in lightning. Purugly yowled, moving stiffly after Sekhmet hopped back.

Paralysis. "Good job, keep it up!"

Covering herself with electricity, the Luxio charged towards her foe. That was her mistake. Purugly liked to attack at close range, and while the fat cat was paralyzed, it still wasn't a good idea to get too close to the Pokémon, or order her Pokémon to use a move that would get her close.

Mars highlighted this for her.

"Scratch when it comes closer!"

Sekhmet rammed her body into the Purugly, but screamed when the scratch hit her neck area. When the Purugly raked its claws away, blood splattered the ground at their paws. Lots and lots of it. Sure, they'd bled before from attacks similar to scratch before – in the last tournament too – but this was serious. This had been a wound made in an attempt to kill.

Dawn recalled her quickly in fear of losing her, and sent Neptune. The stasis of Poké balls had been greatly improved, but it wasn't perfect yet. She had to get to a center, and soon. "Finish it off!" she shouted, sounding a lot more confident than she really was. Thankfully, she had her Poké balls in her bag. Mars and the others wouldn't see that she had only two Pokémon on her. Hopefully they would believe that her confidence stemmed from having lots of Pokémon at her beck and call.

Just in case, she took out an empty great ball and held it tightly in her hands, pretending she had another Pokémon ready to go. If Neptune fell, then her bluff was over, but she knew he wouldn't fail. She wasn't going to be making a mistake like the one that had cost Sekhmet again. "Bubble beam!"

Purugly was paralyzed and already hurt, but it still took two tries to get it unconscious. "Oops," Mars recalled it with a giggle that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I messed that one up. But it's alright – I quite enjoyed our battle, girl. Whoever you are."

She was lying. At the moment, though, Dawn wasn't going to point that out. Neptune slunk to her side, giving every one and thing a stink eye worthy of an intimidate on its own.

Now that the battle was over, Dawn tried to not shuffle on her feet. She needed them to leave. She needed Emily's dad safe. She needed to get out of here and heal Sekhmet now before something permanent and bad happened. She wasn't ready to lose a Pokémon, not yet – and probably would never be.

"My, my," the old scientist guy said in a dry voice that reminded Dawn of snake Pokémon. And not the pretty ones, either – the creepy ones. "Losing to a child, Mars? But it's alright, since we have everything we need. Why don't we leave now?"

The redhead turned on him, teeth bared in annoyance and disgust. "Shut up! The boss is the only person in the world who I will obey. You stay quiet, newbie."

If they had internal problems, that was fine with Dawn. "But you _are_ leaving, aren't you?" she prompted, reminding the commander of her promise. Neptune was at her side, tips of his flippers glowing in a casual but noticeable metal claw. It was a bit of a bluff, seeing as Sekhmet was out of commission and he was her only functioning Pokémon, but Team Galactic didn't need to know that. _She_ didn't need to show that. She just had to look like an experienced trainer with a battalion of strong Pokémon at her beck and call.

Dawn kept her posture confident, her face blank but sure. She tried to channel her inner Uncle Palmer, who was always confident and with the upper hand, and be every bit the Steele she was. Her spine was locked, but it was straight and didn't shake or tremble. The same applied for her knees and legs. They didn't tremor in fear or in nervousness. For all purposes, she appeared calm and more than capable of continuing on. For extra measures Dawn silently took deep breaths of air and released them through a tiny, invisible gap through her lips, something she did to calm herself at large formal events she went to with her mom.

Mars gave Dawn a sharp smile. She had bought the unspoken bluff. "Yes – time for a good-bye, I suppose. For now. Bye-bye!" she raised her head. "Clear out!"

As she watched, they cleared out at what had to be a record pace. That, at least, they were effective at. She stayed still for a few moments, making sure that they were really gone before she dared to move. Once she was sure, she bolted out the door.

A few seconds later, a pale-faced Dawn was running through the very southern part of Route 205 to the Floaroma Pokémon Center to have Sekhmet healed. Mr. Borden ran after her. He had a limp in his left leg, but the ungraceful trotting gait was nearly fast enough to keep up with her even if he was in danger of tripping and falling flat on his face. He kept asking just where his daughter was, but Dawn ignored him and ran to the center, where she shoved the trainers in line aside. "Emergency," she gasped to the nurse, who's annoyance dripped away once she started explaining. "She's got a neck injury – she was bleeding so badly, and -"

The nurse nodded and took Sekhmet's ball. She placed the capsule into the healing machine. "It's just a cut?" she asked Dawn while another nurse took her spot at the reception area to deal with the other trainers.

Dawn was nearly indignant at her words – _just_ a cut?! – but she kept her calm, residue of bluffing it in front of Mars. "She was battling a bit, but nothing too bad except for the slash."

The machine dinged, and Dawn noticed that the sound took a lot longer than the usual time for healing. The nurse read something off the monitor, and then nodded. "She'll be fine," she said. "I'd recommend that you keep her here just a few more hours, but she'll be fine."

Dawn sighed. "Thank you."

It was only then that she noticed Mr. Borden still tugging at her sleeve like a lost child. "Oh, right. Mr. Borden, come with me – Emily's fine, really, she's just at the flower shop waiting for you."

A legendary couldn't have kept him from running out of the center, limp be damned. Dawn, not having the same emotional excuse, was forced to fast-walk out of the building and then chase after him to the flower shop.

He burst in, making the bells of the shop's doors jangle furiously in dissonant protest at the rough treatment. He ignored it, scanning the shop's interior. It was easy to hone in into the huge stack of goodies, and even easier to see his daughter's familiar dark brown head.

Just as easy as it was for his daughter to turn around and see his face.

"Papa!" shrieking with happiness, Emily flew into her father's arms before flinging herself out. "Blech! You smell, papa! Go take a shower, stinky!"

"I'm sorry, baby girl," he apologized, but there was no hiding the joy in his eyes. "They had me working non-stop, so I couldn't really focus on hygiene."

Emily skipped up to Dawn, who had entered behind her father. "Thank you so much, trainer!" she hugged her, too. "Now the balloon Pokémon will return, since the spacemen are all gone!"

"All gone," Dawn agreed, even if she had no idea what Emily was talking about. Balloon _what_?

Then, Burt – the honey guy – was there, thanking her for saving him and shoving cases of honey into her arms. "I can't accept these!" she sputtered when she nearly dropped the tenth case onto the ground.

"Yes, you can. And you will. Also, you get discounts." He refused to have anything else said on the matter. She put it away into her bag's item storage – she supposed she had earned it, even if she wasn't quite sure what she could use it for.

Dawn stayed in Floaroma for a few more days, wanting to make sure that Sekhmet was comfortable enough to continue on. The nurse assured her that the healing machine had done enough to fix her back to near-perfect condition, but she still stayed, terrified that one wrong move would lead to her Luxio bleeding to death in the middle of nowhere.

Sekhmet had a scar on her neck. A scar. Not only did Pokémon heal incredibly well, but the machines in centers were incredibly – miraculously – efficient, sometimes capable of even restoring lost limbs, depending on which Pokémon it was.

A Luxio wasn't one of those, but even so – she still could heal fast. The fact that she had a scar made her worry incessantly until the Luxio decided that she had enough and gave her a tiny spark to ward off all the coddling. She had no patience for coddling.

After that Dawn gave her less coddling and more apologies during training. Once she got used to Sekhmet leaping and twisting around and stopped cringing in worry, she'd be ready to go.

Emily and Mr. Borden were staying with Emily's grandmother on the other side of town, and they insisted that she stayed with them instead of a motel alone. She was treated like family, and it was nice to stay at an actual house for once.

When it was time to leave Floaroma and get going, she let Emily tackle her into a crushing hug one last time before heading up to Route 205 with the Borden family waving at her until she disappeared from sight.

* * *

><p>When Charles Borden returned to the Valley Windworks, he found a man in a trench coat. Instinctively, his hand went to the pocket where the Pokémon he had just purchased for security dwelled, but trench-coat put his hands up in a gesture of no harm. "Mr. Borden?" he asked. "I'm Agent Looker from Interpol – we spoke on the phone?"<p>

After that, he let Looker look around. The sheriff had come in with his men, but there apparently hadn't been anything of importance left over, and according to him it didn't seem like much use to investigate an abandoned nest.

Agent Looker asked him questions, more in-depths and detailed than the sheriff's had been. "And you say a girl took them down? Singlehandedly?"

Charles nodded. "She was absolutely amazing," he said, recalling how she had simply smashed through all the grunts and defeated even the commander, as confident as a Champion despite her obvious youth. "If it weren't for her . . . ."

Looker took down the descriptions of the saviour, noting that it sounded rather familiar. If he wasn't wrong, then the female trainer with the Prinplup and the Luxio happened to be one of the kids he had warned to be on the lookout for shady characters, one of Professor Rowan's young assistants. "Do you mind if I process the evidence left behind?"

Charles shrugged. "Go ahead."

The scientist left, and Looker was alone with his notes and thoughts in the scene where earlier on, a potentially dangerous organization had been up to _something_. Gathering energy, he had gotten from the interview with Mr. Borden, but the big question still remained. _What for? _

His gut feeling told him that it wasn't anything good. And his gut feeling had gotten him out of a countless number of troubles.

Team Galactic hadn't left any agendas or schedules, but upon closer inspection Looker had found that an email had been carelessly left opened on a computer in the Windworks. "The bringer of wars . . . Your target is the energy of the power plant," he frowned. "The bringer of contentment . . . Your target is the Pokémon statue of Eterna City. The bringer of aging . . . Your target is the Pokémon that sleeps on today."

And, of course, it was signed with nothing but a 'Team Galactic.'

He took some pictures and noted the address. The tone was one a leader would use to strategically place his or her subordinates. If they could track who had sent this, they could reach the head of Team Galactic.

Looker stood up and called headquarters.

* * *

><p>The strategy was simple. Hit hard and fast with Staravia and Ponyta, two very fast Pokémon with super-effective moves.<p>

To untrained eyes, that would have been all that appeared present. But Barry had trained Starling and Camarero until their speed and agility was good enough for them to hit hard and get out quickly enough. They knew how to avoid the scattering, status-causing pollen her Pokémon used, something that took more than just luck and instinct. They'd been trained extensively to avoid those air-born powders, and their effort showed.

Gardenia's Pokémon put on a struggle and actually managed to take down Camarero after a fight prolonged by reflect and a leech seed, but Starling, paralyzed and all, had managed to come through and took down her Roserade with an excellent wing attack.

"Your strategy's a bit lacking," she said as she handed him his second badge. "But you certainly played your Pokémon's strength to their fullest potential." As expected of the Tower Tycoon's son. "For that and your victory, I award you the Forest Badge."

"Sweet!" he took it and let out a loud whoop. Some of the ladies scowled at him, but the younger girls laughed. "Thanks!"

The gym leader smiled. "You're welcome. I wish you luck on your journey."

* * *

><p>AN: The tournaments-thing is one of the things the pixiv comic inspired. The mangaka had such a cool system for it and everything so I stole a few ideas. The trainers in the tournament, for those who didn't get the hints, are based off the trainers on Route 204. Sekhmet actually did evolve while facing the twin Pachirisu, and Neptune learned bubble beam.<p> 


	8. Eternal Green

A.S.107

July 19th

_Met Cynthia, one of Prof. R's students. She gave me an egg._

* * *

><p>The thick foliage of Eterna's famous trees tinted the sunlight a light green in the parts where it passed through. Mostly, though the forest was dark, the sun's reach not allowed within the confinements of the branches. Such was the way Eterna forest had been, always remaining as if no time flowed within its trees. An eternal dome, a small world of its own where everything was quiet.<p>

It was, however, daylight outside, and so the map in front of them was visible.

Normally, Cheryl didn't use maps of Eterna Forest. She didn't need to – after all, she had grown up in Eterna City where her family had lived for more generations than anyone could remember, and she was one of those people who knew the place like the back of her hand.

But right now, she was designating sections of the forest to her Pokémon so they could search their areas for anything suspicious. To do that, she needed to be specific and down to the last gridline.

"Florence, you'll search the center of the forest, but your main objective is to heal everyone, okay? If there's a situation that may be dangerous, wait until the others report to you," Cheryl leaned in closer to the Blissey. "You're going to be in charge, alright?"

Her closest partner smiled reassuringly.

"Grant, you'll cover this section," she pointed out the designated area to her Hariyama, who nodded in confirmation.

"Erik, since you're at home in the forest, I want you to cover the largest area," the Roserade gave a cry of confirmation and saluted her with his red bouquet.

"Amelia," she continued, taking her finger away from the map. "You're air support. If anyone gets too hurt to continue or gets lost, then bring them to Florence. Contact me _immediately_ if you see anything. Everyone clear?"

They all nodded.

Cheryl sighed, and leaned in to hug each and every one of them before kissing their foreheads. She even gave one to Amelia, who giggled slightly and used her slip-like arms to cover her x-shaped mouth. "Be careful, guys," she said at last. "And – thank you for coming with me."

Florence poked her shoulder. _You should be careful too_, she seemed to say.

"I'll be alright," Cheryl said in a hopefully reassuring manner. "I've got Mary with me."

Florence could either worry about Cheryl and hurt her daughter's feelings, or she could leave her trainer in her offspring's hand. _Be careful, _the solid pat to her shoulder said. "I will," Cheryl replied.

Her Pokémon scattered into the green depth of Eterna Forest, disappearing within the folds of the national park's trees. She stood up, and began to make her way to the southern part of the forest when she heard the scream.

"_AHHHHHHHH_!"

Eterna forest was filled with Pokémon, some docile and some . . . not so much. Some young trainers came in unprepared and often found themselves in danger. As a native of Eterna City, Cheryl had seen far too many scarred and injured trainers brought in by the forest's rangers, and some that never made it despite best efforts, which was why her feet were hurrying towards the source of the young girl's scream.

She turned around the corner, expecting the worse. A face permanently disfigured, a Pokémon dead, maybe a broken bone.

What she saw was a perfectly healthy – albeit rather frustrated-looking – girl who was stomping her foot, while two Pokémon stared at their trainer throw a temper tantrum. "I hate this place! I just want to get through to Eterna City, is that so Mespirit-damned hard to ask for?!"

Come to think of it, she was also used to seeing frustrated trainers. While their faces blurred in memory, they were far more plentiful than the ones with serious injuries. "Hello?" Cheryl called, stepping into view. "Are you alright? Do you need help?"

The girl spun on the heels of her pink boots, eyes wide in frustration. She looked ready to rip the blue hair sticking out from under her white hat out of her head. "I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm – just – _lost_."

"Oh," Cheryl understood. It was a large forest, and easy to get lost in. Even some residents of Eterna had a hard time finding their way around, because the trails always changed due to shifting greenery. "Well, I could always show you the way out, if you need."

"Really?" in a second, the girl's frustration was gone from her face, no trace of it left at all. She looked extremely hopeful as she stared at Cheryl. "You could do that?"

"Yes," she laughed a bit –the girl was cute, in the childish, petite way. "Oh, sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Cheryl, Cheryl Verdant. And your name is . . . ?"

"I'm Dawn," she said. "Dawn Steele."

Cheryl gave a small start at her last name, though Dawn, eyes drawn to her Prinplup sneezing, hadn't noticed. She opened her mouth, about to ask about possible relatives, but then closed it. The Steele family was one of the largest in Sinnoh. As well-connected and affluent as they were, members didn't know every other cousin and in-law. "Nice to meet you, Dawn," she said instead. "Well then, shall we get going?"

Dawn gave her a bright smile. "Yes please!"

There was a main trail – it was just hard to notice sometimes, because the moss the Eterna Forest was famous for grew all over the place, and trails never stayed uncovered for long despite the efforts of rangers. Even if Dawn stuck to Cheryl, one of the people who could say that they knew Eterna Forest like the back of their hands, it would still take a few hours to clear through the largest forest in Sinnoh.

During those hours of walking together, Cheryl found that the girl, Dawn, talked. A lot. She chattered about everything and anything, including her Pokémon into the conversation at random intervals. And she found herself opening up to her as well. There was something very soothing about talking to her, and she felt as if she could trust this girl with anything. She supposed it was a Steele family trait.

During one of their conversations, Cheryl remembered why she had dropped by Eterna Forest. "It's actually safer to travel together right now," she said. "I hear that Team Galactic members were about."

Dawn's smile had dropped. "Team Galactic?"

That brought a whole new conversation topic, where the girl became much more serious. "See?" she parted the fur around her Luxio's neck, where Cheryl saw a recently healed wound. "One of the commanders did that to Sekhmet."

So, not only was she an ambitious trainer who wanted to collect all the badges in Sinnoh, but she also couldn't stand criminals. Dawn would either become big – or get killed. Cheryl sincerely hoped that it would be the former.

After that she changed the topic. "What Pokémon do you have?" she asked when they had gone through half the forest. Although Cheryl saw no Galactic grunts, she did participate in the occasional double battles with Dawn. Other trainers attempting to hike through the thick, dense forest had done the smart thing and brought along a companion.

"On hand? I'm afraid I only have Mary with me," she patted her Chansey's head. "But I have others. I mostly have Pokémon that specialize in healing or taking hits and stalling out, but I'm afraid that I'm not a very good battler in terms of strength or speed." Which was why she was the HP expert at the Battle Tower. She was patient, and that style of battling fit her well.

"Well," said Dawn, "I guess you just need to try and get out of your comfort zone. Look!"

Cheryl looked to where Dawn was pointing, and saw two Buneary. "I want to catch one," Dawn said. Buneary were quick, and pretty strong with their punches – a good Pokémon to add to her team. After Valley Windworks, Dawn didn't want to be caught with only one Pokémon covering her. Neptune and Sekhmet were strong, but she didn't want to push them to their deaths. Or die herself. That would be rather counterproductive to her being a trainer.

"You catch the other one, alright?"

Taking out Mary's Poké ball, Cheryl headed over to fight one while Dawn distracted and separated the other.

"Careful," she warned Sekhmet. "Don't pull your neck or-"

With a roll of her eyes, Sekhmet lunged. If it weren't for the quick endure it used, the Buneary would have fainted under the spark. Instead, it was left barely standing and paralyzed.

Dawn threw a Poké ball. It was caught without a struggle.

Cheryl's Buneary, though, had decided to run away instead of sticking around to be caught. The green-haired woman gave a smile and a shrug instead. "I guess I'll just stick with my style," she said. "Here, give me your Buneary – I'll heal it. What will you name her?"

Dawn released the rabbit. Despite being paralyzed and barely clinging to consciousness, the Buneary had a stoic expression.

"Frejya, maybe. What do you think?" she asked the Buneary.

The Buneary maintained her indifferent expression, so Dawn took that as a confirmation and keyed it into her Poké ball.

A bit further in – or further out, Dawn supposed – they ran into a Hoothoot. Her watch did say it was nearing night, although the forest looked as dim as it had before. "Do you mind if I-" Dawn began, raising an empty Poké ball.

Cheryl shook her head. Dawn caught the bird using Frejya, whose quickness hit the bird into stunned slowness before it could fly out of Poké ball range.

"You're catching a lot of Pokémon," Cheryl noticed. "Are you sure you'll be able to handle training up so many at once?"

"I think so," Dawn said, releasing the Hoothoot and letting the green-haired woman heal up the bird. "Minerva. Do you like that name? You do? Okay. And it's what a trainer does, right? Catch Pokémon and train them?"

Cheryl would have said more to that – numbers weren't everything, and there were more important things than quantity – when she remembered the obvious closeness between the girl and her two older Pokémon. She would be fine.

Two hours after catching Minerva, they were at the eastern exit – or entrance, depending on how it was looked at – of Eterna Forest. Dawn surprised Cheryl by turning around to give her a fierce a hug. "Thank you for everything."

She returned the embrace. "Oh, it was nothing," she replied. "Here – I want you to have this."

Impulsively, she reached into her bag and dug out a small box. Some time ago, one of Cheryl's admirers at the Battle Tower had sent her a gift – a lovely, silver-plated soothe bell with a small jeweled orb on a ribbon. Since the man had been one of the creepier fans she had, Cheryl had no problems giving away the gift, especially to someone who deserved it. It would help with her getting closer to her Pokémon.

"It's pretty," Dawn noted. Then, because Frejya seemed to like the sound of it chiming, she gave it to the buneary so she could wear it around her neck. "Thanks, Cheryl. For both the bell and the healing."

"No problem," she smiled softly at her. "Good luck with your badge, Dawn. I hope to see you again."

"Me too."

And then Cheryl went back to patrolling the forest while Dawn continued on out, ready to enter one of the oldest cities in Sinnoh.

* * *

><p>"Hey you!"<p>

A Galactic grunt jogged up to her when she pointed to herself blankly. "Yeah you! Hand over your-"

Sekhmet, out by her side for safety reasons, let out a warning growl. He faltered and stepped back. "Uh, you look tough – I mean, never mind. Carry on."

Eterna was a wonderful city. Modern buildings were around, sure, but the city was permeated with the feeling of the past – nostalgia, old books and statues. Almost every god in Sinnoh had at least one temple dedicated towards them in the city, and whenever festival times came up, the city threw some of its world-famous celebrations in honour of the holy days.

Dawn loved it. Even as night fell while she stepped out of the forest that shared its name, the city's historical beauty and landmarks could still be seen. The growing shadows only made them seem all the more mysterious, giving an almost mythical quality to their age and value.

And she would have loved it even more if it weren't for the grunts crawling around here and there, their bright teal hair visible from afar. It really did ruin the view, like poisonous, obnoxiously coloured mushrooms popping up everywhere in a peaceful zen garden.

Unfortunately, she couldn't get the police to do anything. "If you can't identify the individuals," the officer she had spoken to shrugged helplessly, "then we can't just bring in random people, even if they are of the same organization."

She'd gone right to the police when she had caught sight of the familiar, obnoxious blue-green hairstyle. Back in the Windworks there hadn't been a choice but to let Galactic leave, but now? Surely now she could do something, and give the police a reason to arrest these crooks.

But apparently not. "Not even for questioning?" she tried.

He sighed. "The last time we tried that, the city was nearly sued for all it was worth. The mayor's against trying that again."

And since they weren't going around threatening people, Dawn very well couldn't pick on _them_ either because that was illegal. "This sucks," she complained. "If that guy had tried to grab you guys, at least I could have gotten _him_ in. It's not your fault," she added at the look on Sekhmet's face. "It's all his."

She wasn't going to pull a stupid stunt like setting up a trap, either. That was practically begging for danger. Which left her with the option of doing nothing.

But could she stay inactive?

Her head hurt. All the buts coming up in her head for every decision she was about to make made this very hard to think through.

"Dawn!"

She smiled at the very welcome distraction that took the form of one hyper blond waving crazily to her. "Barry!"

Her friend jogged up to her. "You're late," he scolded. "I've already gotten the badge and everything. What took you so long? You got lost in Eterna Forest, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't." It was technically the truth, since she had found the way in the end yesterday, thanks to Cheryl. It was more due to Team Galactic causing a ruckus in Floaroma.

"Right, right. By the way, the leader here specializes in grass types, so I hope you caught more Pokémon since Neptune and Sekhmet won't have much of an edge."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at him. "You don't know that."

Barry just grinned. "You caught some."

He knew her too well. "Yeah . . ."

"Show me!"

So she released all her Pokémon as they wandered around the city. Minerva was friendly enough, but Frejya kept a cool distance. "Man, she's an ice queen," he said, pointing to her Buneary.

"She's awesome," Dawn retorted. "And she can pound you into the ground if she wanted. In fact, we could prove it in a battle right now."

Barry, surprisingly, shook his head and declined. "Nah, you need to save your energy for the gym leader. She's pretty tough, so you better have gotten better. Oh, hey, see that?"

Him and his attention span. He had changed the subject before she could tell him that she could take the gym leader. "What?"

"Are you blind or something? _That_."

She hoped that he was pointing to the large statue of a creature with a fearsome jaw and twisted limbs. "What _is_ that?" it looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. She knew she'd seen it in a history book before . . . .

"It's a fusion of the Lady of Time, Dialga, and the Lord of Space, Palkia," Barry answered – _intelligently_ – much to her surprise. Normally he knew next to nothing about mythology except what she brainwashed him into remembering. "See, there was this belief that the world was created by time and space merging once. Or was it a version of a belief?"

When he noticed Dawn staring at him, he beamed. "Someone told me that," he said. "And I remembered it all."

"Yes you did."

"Gah!" Dawn jumped.

"Oh," the person responsible for her shock apologized. "I'm sorry – I didn't intend to scare you."

"It's fine," she said, patting her chest and making sure her heart was okay.

The woman smiled. She had a friendly smile and intelligent gray eyes, framed by pale blonde – East Sinnohan, just like Barry's family – hair set in smooth waves. She reminded Dawn of a businesswoman, with her all-black, formal-looking clothes, but with the touches that made it more fashionable than the classics with the jewelled brooch at the center of the duster. The accessory was black, but it was the design based off the crest of Iron Queens, a popular design for female trainers to wear.

Before Dawn could try to figure out just which designer brand the woman's wardrobe came from, she turned to her childhood friend. "Is she the friend you were talking about, Barry?" the blonde asked the boy.

"Yup! Hey, Dawn, this is Cynthia! She likes myths like you!"

"Hi," she offered a hand. The blonde woman took it and gave a firm shake. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Cynthia replied as she withdrew her hand. "Professor Rowan's told me about you two – I took a part in the first Sinnohan Pokédex distribution," she added when Dawn looked surprised. "Interested in myths, you say?"

"Very," Dawn nodded. If she knew Professor Rowan, then she was trustworthy. Hopefully.

"Hey, I'm the one who said that!" Barry whined.

The black-clothed blonde smiled. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean any offense."

Dawn's childhood friend was quick to forgive and forget. "S'all good. Well, I've got to run – see ya, Dawn! Bye, Cynthia! Nice meeting you!"

She waved, before turning back to Cynthia, questions ready to burst. "So is it true what Barry told me? That the statue down there is a fusion of the two?"

"A statue based on the theory that this world is a creation of time and space mixing together, yes," Cynthia looked down at the statue, almost grotesque in the way the back of the creature twisted upwards in a near-sickening angle. "And even then, it's really only one of many suggestions on just how that fusion was 'mixed'. I've even read papers suggesting that the two legendaries became lovers and the egg they gave birth to was the world."

Dawn got her eyes off the statue. That version, she hadn't heard before. "But what about the other legendaries?"

Cynthia shrugged. "If that was the case, then they too would have been born with, or after the world. It is not my favourite theory, I must admit. It leaves too many questions unanswered, but then again, perhaps that's because there hasn't been enough scripture of it uncovered."

". . . So this is Eterna's statue."

The blonde gave a mysterious smile. "It seems other people are interested in the myths of Sinnoh as well," she nodded to a blue-haired man standing in front of the statue, lips pressed into a thin line and narrowed eyes boring holes into the face of the creature depicted. "A great thing. They're quite rich and complex, and the truth they are said to contain has always been elusive to even the most ambitious of scholars."

"Is that so?" the blue-haired man had overheard Cynthia speaking, and now approached them to address her directly. "Are you such a scholar, madam?"

He sounded doubtful, like he thought Cynthia too unworthy or ignorant to be such a person.

The blonde smiled slightly, but it wasn't quite as nice as the one she had given Dawn. It made her more wary to see it because there was an edge to it, directed to the slightly disbelieving tone his question contained. "In my spare time," she admitted vaguely. "And you, sir? What brings your interests to the Sinnoh myths?"

He looked at the two of them. No – he ignored Dawn, really, because in his eyes she was a short child who probably did not understand half the things being said in front of her. His gaze, cold and purely calculating, was directed at Cynthia. "Time and Space shapes our world in an intertwining spiral," he said, nodding towards the statue of Dialga and Palkia's merged figures. "The two Pokémon are revered within this region, based on the myths. Its truth needs investigation. Wouldn't you agree?"

Cynthia raised one eyebrow. He sounded like a theist. "I would."

It looked like that was all the blue-haired man needed, because he simply curled his lips upwards in what might have been a smile and left. "Pardon," he muttered when he slightly bumped into Dawn, almost like he couldn't quite care about the societal norms that dictated he ask for forgiveness for brushing against her, but did it out of something akin to absolute necessity.

That felt familiar, but it wasn't until he was gone from sight and hearing that Dawn clapped her hands together. "I saw that guy before!" she exclaimed, remembering the day when she and Barry had stood on the shores of their favourite lake, when the unidentified sound had shaken the very air and their cores. The day she received her Pokédex from the professor and officially went on her journey. "He was the one at Lake Verity!"

"At Lake Verity? He seems very interested in the myths of Sinnoh," Cynthia mused for a while before she shook her head. "I keep losing my focus. I'm sorry, Dawn, it's been wonderful to meet you and discuss myths, but it seems I should get going. Before I do that, though, would you do me a favour?"

"Um, sure?" she seemed like a nice enough person.

Cynthia opened the wicker hamper she had been carrying. Inside, nestled in soft cloths, was an egg. "There's a baby Pokémon in this," she said, "just waiting to see the world. It's a habit of mine to give the eggs of my Pokémon to trainers who are interested in myths, because I want my Pokémon's offspring to grow up with different sides of legends and histories told to them. If Professor Rowan trusts you, then that's more than enough of a recommendation for me. Would you take care of him or her and help the Pokémon grow?"

Inside, Dawn couldn't help but grumble a bit – how was it that everything she did seemed to be tracing Lyra in her footsteps? – but she smiled and agreed to do so.

* * *

><p>"An egg?" Sekhmet tossed her mane in clear irritation. "Why can't I eat it?"<p>

Neptune scowled at her. This wasn't a matter of her being _hungry_ – this was a matter of her showing off to the two new members of the team to establish that she was strong and capable of ruthlessness. She wanted to establish herself as the boss here.

First things first. _He_ was team leader here, type advantage or not. And _she_ was forgetting her place – trainer's words trumped power. "Because _Dawn_ said so."

"Hmph," the electric-type sniffed, but she didn't challenge the order. He had invoked their trainer's name, and their trainer had been absolutely adamant about the matter – the egg was not to be harmed by any of them, intentionally or 'accidentally'.

Their two new teammates sniffed at the egg. Frejya, a Buneary that didn't like to show much emotion, was an herbivore and wasn't interested in seeing the egg being hurt. Minerva didn't care.

Their additions to Neptune's group had been rather sudden. At least, Neptune felt so.

But Dawn treated them like they were old friends, or family. While they weren't as great as he was, she still gave them a warm welcome and took care of them excellently, grooming them and making sure to consult them on the kinds of food they liked. Dawn was just like that, he supposed, and as the leader of this team he figured that he would have to set a good precedent. Because the two of them weren't as strong as he was, Neptune felt that he had to pity their less supreme selves and accept them, because otherwise no one else would.

"I'm back," Dawn said as she came up to them. She had been gone to buy some special postcards to send to her mom, something she did at every town or city except Jubilife, because Jubilife was pretty close and they went to the city a lot. "How's the egg?"

The Pokémon all shrugged.

* * *

><p>Adam Martin, or the Underground Man, as he was known best, had been nothing short of thrilled when a young, aspiring academic came in to inquire about the Sinnoh Underground, the intricate system of tunnels under Sinnoh. In fact, he'd been so thrilled that he promptly took the young, inquisitive boy in as an apprentice right then and there to mentor him on the art of excavating and tunnelling, just as he had mentored his son and grandson.<p>

It was hard work, digging and excavating, but Lucas enjoyed spending time underground immensely. He dug up a few evolutionary stones and even a fossil that was confirmed to be one of the 'Armour' variety. "Just take it to Oreburgh's museum," the Underground Man, or Master, as Lucas was to call him, said. Unlike other regions, there weren't strict restrictions and regulations on fossil Pokémon in Sinnoh. There was, of course, the occasional controversy for religious regions and reasons, but those had been more serious when revived Pokémon first came out. By now no one really cared except the occasional surge in extremist cults. "They'll extract the DNA and revive it for free if you let them keep what's left of the fossil after."

Which was more than Lucas could have asked for. He felt free here, even if it was a bit ironic that he would feel so liberated underground.

"Isn't this nice, Charlotte?" he asked his Monferno as they set up his secret base. His father would probably say that something like a secret base was immature and childish, but he liked it. He could decorate it the way he wanted to decorate his room, and it would be his private place, not just an extension of the prison his home felt like sometimes.

The fire monkey sniffed at the Chimchar doll the Underground Man had given him after seeing his starter. "You're cuter," he assured her as he placed the wooden chair next to the table.

She chattered happily and a genuine smile came up on his face. "Alright," he said. "I think we've spent enough time below. Let's go work on our Pokédex now."

* * *

><p>Lyra had simply carried Adam – her Togepi –in her arms back when he had been inside an egg as she battled and went on her journey.<p>

Dawn was too terrified at the idea of her dropping the egg, especially because it rocked back and forth on its base every now and then. The idea of dropping it during a shake to see the shell shatter and spill its contents – whatever they would look like – made her feel cold sweats down her spine.

To not get in that situation, she kept it nested in the hamper Cynthia had given the egg to her in. Training hadn't been hard because Neptune, acting rather amusingly like an overprotective daddy Pokémon, insisted that she sat and watched over the egg instead of running everywhere with them as usual, but Dawn didn't like sitting and doing nothing while her Pokémon did all the work. She was supposed to build a connection with them, and for as long as she could remember she had watched her mom participate in everything with her Pokémon when rehearsing, coordinating or choreographing. Uncle Palmer, too, was famous for letting his Milotic and Dragonite out at Lake Verity before diving into the lake himself. Just sitting and supervising without taking part felt weird, almost wrong even.

She tried to get as involved as possible. Having purchased a few things like Frisbees and softballs, she threw them at her Pokémon to get them used to dodging fast, small projectiles. They weren't as fast or as many as razor leaves would be, but her Pokémon rose to the challenge. Soon she was changing to a slingshot and pebbles with edges that would hurt more.

"You okay?" she called when Frejya was hit on the head by a rock she hadn't noticed until it was too late. The Buneary shook it off and made gestures with her ears to keep them coming. Frejya, Dawn took mental notes, didn't show her emotions very well. She took everything rather seriously, and seemed almost apathetic at times.

But she battled. She'd proven that she was pretty strong already by breaking boulders with her ears, and she was getting good at using quick attack for starting _blitzkrieg_ hits. Her ability, run away, was also helpful against the tricky nature of grass types and their love of statuses. Out of all Dawn's Pokémon, Frejya was the best at avoiding powders sprinkled in the air.

That had been a fun experiment. She'd taken some flour and thrown fistfuls of them at her Pokémon, who all had to scramble out of the way as she went after them waving fists of white powder. Most of them had gotten it on their faces – where Dawn had specifically aimed – but Frejya had dodged facial contact with it each time.

Spore attacks like poison powder, stun spore or sleep powder didn't get in the body through the nose or mouth only. It was possible for the effects of the powder to be absorbed through the skin. However, that method took a much longer time, and wasn't as reliably accurate in is success. A lungful – even a mouthful or a nostril-full – of status-inducing spore would paralyze, poison or knock a Pokémon out. Frejya could avoid that, and buy time for more attacks.

And then, of course, there was Minerva, her secret weapon. Her type gave her an advantage over the gym's type. The plan was to use her like Dawn had used Neptune in Oreburgh – sweep through the trainers in the gym to get her used to the style of the gym, and then save her against the gym leader until she sent out her ace. Other than that, Dawn didn't have much planned for the Hoothoot. She was near evolution, judging by the way she grew and shed her small brown down for longer, stiffer feathers. Dawn made sure to feed her vitamins and nutritious food so that when she _did_ evolve, she wouldn't be deprived of nutrients.

"I think we're ready," she told them on the third day of the Egg Watch. She wasn't sure what was in the egg, and had been trying to observe it to understand just what kind it could be. A Magikarp? A Feebas? A Budew?

She had told Lyra about it over their daily chats, mentioning it to distract the Johtoan trainer from the news of Team Galactic and their thick presence in Eterna City before she found out about Mars. Lyra had, in return, taken the decoy and joked about the likelihood of it being a Togepi. They went as far as planning out a wedding between their two Togepi for half an hour over chats before letting it go.

At the gym, she booked a battle for the next day, and all of them spent the rest of the day running around Eterna to relax and look at famous landmarks.

* * *

><p>AN: So, biweekly updates. Yeah.<p> 


	9. The Grass That Ties

A.S.107

July 22nd

_I challenged the Eterna Gym today, and learned a new lesson. The egg hatched, as well, but unfortunately for C, I won't be showing the Pokémon inside the world. _

* * *

><p>"I cannot believe you redesigned my gym," her cousin complained as she placed her Pokémon into the healing machine. Once they were placed in the slots, Gardenia led him to one of the tables set in the newly decorated gym.<p>

The gym leader had the gall to snicker. "You gave up the rights to having a say about the interior of this gym when you quit. And besides! It was a _forest_. I'm all for forests, but _really_, Aaron. Sometimes I'm convinced you have the creativity and EQ of a dead Magikarp."

"For all you know they could be very creative," the bug-type specialist of the Sinnoh Elite Four and former leader of Eterna Gym replied loftily. "It's not like you ever asked a _ghost_ of one. And okay, so the forest wasn't exactly creative. But it matched the badge. You know, the _Forest_ Badge? What is _this_?"

"_Obviously_," Gardenia tossed her short hair back, "it's a clock."

The garden-like field the main room of the gym had been changed to was shaped like a large clock – a sundial – that served as an area where the many grass type Pokémon of the gym could relax in, enjoying the sunlight that came in through the convertible roof while waiting for challengers of the gym to come by. Each quarter of the clock was a section that the challenger had to clear to reach the center, where the gym leader would be watching.

Up to four challengers could be challenging the gym at the same time like back when the forest maze was in the gym, but it made it easier for the gym leader to monitor possible challengers while getting through more of them at the same time. Once they had completed the first part of the gym challenge, they would reach her at the center, and from then on be taken to an arena for the official battle.

But it wasn't the missing forest – that had been cleverly grown into a maze in Aaron's time – or the bright, sunny tea-party garden it had been replaced with that made him so irritated. It was just what that gigantic eyesore of a clock was made out of that made his head pound in rather distinct shame for the gym that had formerly been his. It was because the gigantic sundial underfoot was . . . "Made out of flowers," Aaron said flatly.

"Hey, my gym now. My rules. Besides, I kept that forest maze in here for how many years? I _deserve_ the right to redecorate."

Aaron muttered some expletives. Gardenia tapped the table they sat around with a fingernail, making a sharp rapping sound. "Watch your mouth, cousin dearest, or I _will_ wash it with the Roserade-scented soap."

"Fine, fine," he waved his hands. "I concede defeat."

"Elite, my ass," Gardenia grumbled jokingly. "By the way, did you get a new message from Cheryl?"

"You mean anything after than the forwarded one where she electronically thrashed you for not patrolling the forest yourself, despite being the gym leader with the jurisdiction and responsibility?" when his grin was met with a flat look, he shrugged. "Nope."

"Never mind," she said when a very familiar woman with green hair walked up to them. "Speak of the Sneasel and . . . ."

"Sorry I'm late," Cheryl pushed her braid behind her shoulders where it draped across her back. "I was only just patrolling the biggest forest in Sinnoh for a few days with only my Pokémon to help, looking for potentially dangerous people and helping a trainer get to Eterna City safely. Without any help from my family. Who both work for the League and are excellent trainers themselves and actually have reason to help, unlike a civilian – like me."

Cheryl was rarely sarcastic. She only ever became so when she was a bit bitter about something. Luckily, it never lasted.

"Was he cute?" Aaron asked, being the teasing brother.

Cheryl rolled her eyes. Mention helping out an attractive co-worker once, and every good deed was judged. Older brothers. "_She_ was _very_ cute. And she wanted to challenge you," she added for Gardenia's sake, deciding to not mention the possibly ironic connection between Dawn and said co-worker. That would just set him off again.

"Another one, huh?" Gardenia ran some fingers through her bangs, tugging at the slightly-uneven fringe. "Well, hopefully she's the one that booked a match. So, anything on Galactic activity?"

Her cousin shrugged. "None of my Pokémon picked up anything suspicious, and I didn't run into anything odd." Other than Dawn, but the girl was odd in a good way.

"Are you sure?"

Cheryl sighed. "You're welcome to search the forest yourself if you don't trust me," she told Gardenia. "Although, night always did fall fast in the forest. All those ghost Pokémon, wandering through the trees . . . ."

When their cousin paled, the siblings laughed. "I'm sure Cheryl could always lend you Amelia," Aaron said.

Gardenia good-naturedly scowled at them. "Alright, out you two," she gestured. "Scram. I've got a challenger coming soon. We need to set the gym up."

Aaron couldn't resist the opportunity to make one last jab at his cousin regarding her gym's interior decorating. "See now, if you had stuck with the _forest_ for your gym, you could have bought some _time_ for yourself with the maze-"

She rolled her eyes. "Out!"

* * *

><p>Dawn challenged the Eterna Gym the next day. The gym, like most gyms, followed a theme revolving around its specialty type. Oreburgh's had been simple in design, resembling a large coal mine for specializing in rock types.<p>

Eterna's was different. It was brightly coloured thanks to the opened roof, with flowers and delicate shrubbery at the sides making a short and curving path through an obstacle course. This ensured that she faced every single one of the gym trainers.

It wasn't hard. Minerva took them out easily, and after defeating the second gym trainer even managed to evolve. Her round body elongated until it was all predator-like edges and deadly sharpness. Her gaze focused even more, and she lost all of her soft, brown down for the tan-shaded feathers, thick and stiff.

"Do you think you can continue on?" Dawn asked after having her drink some water and eat a few berries. It was better for the Pokémon to take a rest after evolving, but she really wanted to win the badge quickly so that Barry wouldn't get ahead of her. Besides, they'd won last time even after a last-minute evolution, she didn't see why a repeat wouldn't happen.

Minerva as a Noctowl nodded. When she had first joined the team, Neptune, the team leader, had led the welcoming discussion with stories about his heroics. One of them had been just how he'd managed to pull off several victories against a gym leader even after the exhausting process of undergoing evolution into a significantly larger form.

Not to be outdone, Sekhmet had mentioned her own tales as well, about evolving and still battling in a tournament. Neither of them had turned their expecting glares onto her or Frejya, but Minerva had felt the pressure back then, and she felt it now. Dawn was a nice human, nice enough for her to want to battle with her because she made it fun, but she didn't want to seem inferior in comparison to Neptune or Sekhmet, especially not when she was the member of the team best suited to this gym.

"If you're sure," said Dawn.

Minerva certainly did alright, taking out the last of the gym trainers with renewed vigour and stronger wings. When they were finished with the aroma lady, Dawn made sure she got more water and an oran berry in her. "I'm going to return you," she explained. "You've evolved, but that doesn't change the plan. Take a good rest, alright?"

The Noctowl nodded, and then disintegrated into red light before being returned to her ball. Dawn tucked her Poké ball into her pocket and took a deep breath to slow down her fast-thudding heart before steeling herself and walking up to her end of the field.

Gardenia, gym leader of Eterna City waited on the other side, while a cluster of Exeggcute began to buff up the force fields around the arena for protection. The referee called out the rules, but Dawn had already studied them the night before. She tuned him out and focused on relaxing until the final moment. Staying calm as to not lose her composure or make rash decisions was important. She knew she could be stupid if she was hyped up. Most of the times, next to Barry, her decisions looked a lot better than they were, but he wasn't here for comparison now. She had to bring her best game to the table.

When the referee gave the sign, she sent out her first Pokémon a heartbeat after Gardenia did, and found that Frejya stood against a Turtwig.

In the story of the Buneary and the Turtwig, the Turtwig won because of its endurance and persistence. In this arena, it was Frejya's speed and agility versus the Turtwig's defences and sturdiness.

After some thought, she decided against switching out. Turtwig couldn't keep up with Frejya's speed. In terms of mobility, they had the advantage, and she wouldn't have to worry about any kind of status inflicted through powders. She'd done her research on the Turtwig line because of Barry and Champ. They were power hitters and tanks, not status inflictors.

Besides, every time she had faced a Turtwig, speed had always been her greatest edge.

Frejya paused to assess her foe with a foresight, and then she was off like a rocket, ears outstretched and ready to sock something hard with a rock smash.

"Razor leaf to defend," Gardenia called for, and the Turtwig swung its head to throw some leaves in the foe's direction, using the rest to surround his body in an offensive shield. A counter shield, of a sort, one that would hurt any attackers that came too close. Frejya dodged the thrown leaves, and got up close. She was nicked with the sharp edges of the razor leaves on the counter shield, but she ignored them and barrelled on with her punching, occasionally batting a razor leaf away with her paws as she danced around the sides of the Turtwig to keep up the back-to-back rock smashes. At the Buneary continuing to throw punches despite the leaves hitting her, Gardenia raised an eyebrow.

Dawn knew why the gym leader was surprised. It wasn't hard to come up with a counter shield of a sort, using offense as defense to discourage foes from getting close for physical fights. Almost any ranged moves could be used for the 'shielding' purpose, to keep foes at bay. Lots of younger, newer trainers made the mistake of assuming that the counter shield was a perfect strategy no one else had ever come up with, that it would be their ticket to fame and glory.

After years of listening to Palmer's explanations on the game of Pokémon training and watching his battles, Dawn knew better than to make that common assumption. She knew that the so-called perfect defense was actually riddled with flaws, and how a good trainer got over the challenge.

First – counter shields, like all strategies and manoeuvres or shields and armour were not without its imperfections in its defensive capabilities. That had been the lesson drilled into her by Palmer when he had the time to talk to her and his son about battling. There would always be weak points in the offensive defense, chinks in the armour, so to speak. It was harder to find the chink in a broader move like eruption or discharge that was all but _made_ to be used as counter shields, but it was possible because there would always be a spot uncovered. More skilled Pokémon could reduce the chink or move it to a harder place to attack from, but no counter shield could be perfect. If it was, it wouldn't last long.

Second – counter shields were not foolproof. Literally.

This, Palmer had explained as the suicidal fool jumping straight into what was obviously the face of danger. To the new trainers who thought counter shields perfect, their reasoning for just why the counter shield was perfect was based off the logic that only fools would charge headfirst into the offensive terror that was the counter shield.

But that was the point. Counter shields required a lot more focus and control over the use of attacks. It was simpler to, say, throw razor leaves at a specific target than it was to have them thrown around your body while not hitting said body. It wasn't the hardest thing, to use offense defensively, but it took training to get that kind of control, enough for the Pokémon to not hurt themselves while keeping the attack going off near enough to protect. That kind of focus, unless trained extensively and mastered, left the Pokémon using the counter shield vulnerable for a brief moment when the shield of offense was breached.

And it could be breached. Generally, wild Pokémon with common sense hesitated to charge directly into danger. Trainers and trained Pokémon sometimes did the same, whether they were rookies or more experienced. It was, after all, logical. Every sense of the body, dedicated to survival, would have screamed to _not_ jump directly into the counter shield. To not get near that whirling tornado of guaranteed mutual pain. Heck, even trained Pokémon had that sense of hesitance, because the sense of survival was always somewhere in the back of their mind.

The more reckless Pokémon would charge right in without a whit of care. The smarter trainers would realize the weakness of the counter shield.

Them, along with those who knew the strength of a focused will would know that after the initial shield, there was a safe zone the offensive trying to get through the offensive defense could reach, as long as they were able to bear getting through the painful shield. Once they were through, they had a time period where they could hit the shield-raiser in the few seconds it took to adjust from offensive-defense to offense or defense. Inside the safe zone, the former defender would be forced to choose from three options; disengage and retreat, attack or defend.

Uncle Palmer had always said that the will was the most important thing in getting through, the inner focus in the center of a Pokémon's core. It may have been him repeating the words of Azelf, but that was what he said it took. It took willpower. Hesitation while charging at a counter shield would be dangerous, as it exposed them to other tactics the trainer would undoubtedly have up their sleeves, but to charge it, head first, still took guts and determination. The counter shield would most likely be weaker than if the Pokémon had chosen to use the attack in an exclusively offensive manner because it would have to be spread over the defender, but its purpose was to harm attackers and harm it would do. It took guts, or reckless fools who didn't mind getting hurt.

Frejya had guts. While it wasn't the same type behind the offensive defense, she and Minerva had practiced with Sekhmet and Neptune and their own versions of counter shields; Sekhmet with a spark and charge combo that gave the electricity from the spark a bit of range, and Neptune with a bubble beam controlled through a closely-kept water sport.

They hadn't been the best counter shields, of that Dawn was painfully aware, but they had been enough to invoke the instinct to pause and shy away from the obvious danger. It had steeled their nerves and made them practice facing pain, to really draw on the strength from their inner guts. Frejya had been _good_ at it, too. Her Pokémon had learned how to stare pain in the eye and overcome the fear, which was essential to getting through the counter shield. The Buneary was a natural at breaking counter shields.

Despite Palmer's extensive explanations on just why she and Barry shouldn't make the mistake of assuming that the counter shield was a perfect strategy to use in battle, he had admitted, in the end, that it _was_ a good tactic to use. Just not _perfect_. There were ways to deal with it, and that method was what they needed to keep in mind when they were faced with it, and when they used it themselves.

Dawn wouldn't be using counter shields with Sekhmet and Neptune, or any of her Pokémon just yet in official battles – the current versions she'd tried out for the sake of training took more time to set up than it was worth – but if they ever learned new moves more suitable for the purpose, it would be nice to use. Counter shields were best used in spontaneous moments, where the foe was charging at the Pokémon. The counter shield would either make the foe hesitate in executing the attack to earn a few extra seconds of reprieve, or cause them harm as they tried to engage anyways. It just took timing and right decisions to pull it off successfully, that was all.

Frejya, having given the Turtwig a brief circling, began to hop to face the front. When she was in front of the Turtwig's face, she crouched before springing up so she could deliver her two punches with as much body weight as possible in a vicious undercut of a rock smash.

Except Turtwig glowed.

Except Gardenia gave the order. "Reflect!"

The shield that would decrease the potency of all physical attacks sprung up between the chin of the Turtwig and Frejya's ears. Even if she could see bruising in the area the grass type had been hit, the rock smashes hadn't done as much damage as she'd counted upon.

And now they were up close and personal, and the slow Pokémon could get the hit in if they didn't move. "Get out of there," Dawn shouted, and Frejya sprang backwards just in time to avoid a tackle that would have pinned her to the ground.

Frejya's best hope – and she was the Pokémon best fit for the job facing the Turtwig right now – was to continue on with the original plan of wearing down the Turtwig with small but devilishly quick attacks before the Turtwig won over stamina. The reflecting screen up would prolong the process painfully, but Dawn had faith it could work. "Quick attack, from the left," she said.

The Buneary charged again, and threw her body onto the Turtwig's neck in a vicious quick attack. In return, the Turtwig shook his head to release more razor leaves. Frejya ducked to avoid getting a projectile in the face, but her ears took more than a few cuts to them. She kicked the Turtwig in the side before jumping backwards, out of direct contact range with enough room to dodge a reasonable number of razor leaves.

"Quick attack to the back of the neck, follow with rock smash on the head," Dawn instructed. It was like the first battle she had with Neptune against Barry. She had to be quick, and get the Turtwig from the side where he couldn't really see. The grass type's body didn't allow for much wiggle room, either, making it all the better place to hit from.

Dawn never considered the possibility that Gardenia would be very aware of these things. That was her mistake.

"Razor leaf, Mo."

Without turning, the Turtwig unleashed a few more of the knife-like leaves to his back. They were thrown wide, not particularly aimed at any target, but it forced Frejya to make some distance between the two of them to avoid getting hit.

Fine, keep dragging. The effects of reflect would wear out with time, and then Frejya could get a hit in without having to have her strength reduced by the shielding spell.

"Quick attack," Dawn said. Now that they knew that Mo the Turtwig couldn't aim with razor leaves when he shot them behind his head, all they had to do was be careful of the one razor leaf that would come in their direction.

Frejya charged, but suddenly fell in the middle of her charge with a startled sound.

Dawn had to stand on the tip of her toes to get a better look. Was that grass wrapped around one of Frejya's feet?

"Kick it off!" she yelled. Whatever it was, she didn't want Frejya trapped in one place. Her Buneary's strength was her speed and her ability to dodge. If that was taken away, she would become a sitting Psyduck in the line of fire.

"Keep using grass knot," Gardenia ordered.

The Buneary struggled to escape, but the grass clung on steadily and more strands joined in on the binding effort. She could only kick at the grass when she had one foot on the ground, and the grass moved to tie down that other, base foot.

Mo the Turtwig stopped using grass knot once he was sure that his foe would be tied down for a while. While the Buneary struggled, he raised his head up and chanted a spell for sunny day to the open skies of the gym. It was already a clear day, and so the weather change didn't take too much time or effort ton his part.

When he was done, he took aim at the still-struggling Buneary tangled in the grass knots he'd tied. He knew special attacks for coverage and for setting up traps like the one going on right now, but his best offensive attributes lay in his physical attack.

He unleashed razor leaves, more than he had in this battle. Frejya screeched as they hit her, but bent over to raise her feet as much as she could. Some of the sharp leaves cut at the grass, and with her bonds weakened she kicked them off successfully this time.

The Buneary scrambled back to her feet and looked at Dawn. She'd charged the counter shield that had been a maybe in their game plan, she had escaped bindings and taken a lot of hits. Dawn guessed that Frejya had used endure at her own discretion just to pull through every now and then.

Yet she still looked to Dawn to give the order. She still trusted Dawn.

Dawn made the decision. "Charge."

Frejya didn't question or complain. She followed her trainer's orders, and landed a few rock smashes in the area around the Turtwig's face before she herself got a few razor leaves to her face.

"Thanks Frejya," Dawn said as she returned the unconscious Buneary to her ball. The Turtwig had taken hits, but he wasn't exactly near the brink either.

Fine. She'd _push_ him to the brink, and off of it. She let Neptune out as her next Pokémon.

Her Prinplup had been instructed to charge and start pecking at the foe the moment his feet hit the ground unless she shouted for something else. Not hearing orders otherwise, Neptune ran. Prinplup weren't known for their speed, but they were faster in comparison to Turtwig.

And Neptune knew how to take care of Turtwig. He pecked, picking harshly at the sprout on the grass turtle's head like a bully. Razor leaves Mo tried to shoot were batted away with metal claws, and in the struggle Neptune ended up sitting on Mo's shell while pecking like a hungry bird on the top of his head.

Even a Turtwig couldn't last against such a barrage for long, especially one against his head. He fainted, and when Neptune was sure that the slump was a faint he got off of his unconscious foe to let the gym leader return him.

Gardenia released her next Pokémon without any words or show. She was a lot quieter in comparison to Roark, and Dawn found the contrast interesting. Perhaps it depended on the type specialty? Rock types tended to be more focused on blunt confrontations, while grass types were excellent at subterfuge and using the environment to their advantage. It looked like the leaders had picked up on the traits of their favoured types.

Filing that tidbit of information away for later thought and research, Dawn focused on the present challenge. The next foe Pokémon was a Cherrim. Under the sunny day left by Mo, the purple-cloaked bud immediately opened up to reveal a cheerful yellow face framed by pale pink petals. "Magical leaf!" Gardenia ordered, urgency in her voice. Cherrim's ability was . . .

Well, Dawn couldn't remember the name of the ability, but she knew it was something that could power up the owner as well as any Pokémon with the owner as long as they were in strong sunlight. Gardenia would want to maximize on that ability and get as many of Dawn's Pokémon out of action as she could before the weather wore off.

Sunny day wouldn't last long. Dawn considered water sport, but decided against it. The water sport would be too weak to actually cancel out the sunny day, while the moisture would aid the Cherrim as well. While sunny day would help grass types by aiding the process of photosynthesis all grass types could use to some extent, it used up more of their resources, even more so if they had an ability like the one Cherrim did, the one with the name she couldn't remember. Water in the air would replenish what the Cherrim used to get the power up in the sun.

No, she'd have to have Neptune go physical with this one as well. "Peck ahead, with metal claw!"

He dove into the magical leaf barrage, batting at the glowing projectiles with both of his glowing flippers scratching at the air. His beak glowing, he began to peck at the flower when he reached it.

The magical leaves stopped for a moment before returning with a vengeance. Neptune pecked even faster and harder, clearly wanting to finish the Cherrim before the flower finished him off.

Dawn couldn't see the Cherrim well enough because of the magical leaves and the glow of the spells on them, but Neptune looked tired. Tired enough for torrent to be triggered.

The water would hurt – even if the Cherrim took in the miniscule amount to refill its resources, it wouldn't be enough to make _too_ much of a difference. Perhaps a torrent-powered bubble beam could –

No. Sunny day was still going. That cut down any power boost torrent gave it.

Neptune buckled, at last, and fell on his front. The magical leaves scattered down to the ground when they found themselves without a target. As they did so, the last dregs of a green light leaving Neptune to go to the Cherrim were visible.

Dawn had seen that green light before, used by the pre-evolution of Cherrim. "Did you use a leech seed?" she asked as she returned Neptune. The Cherrim looked to be in relatively good health considering what it had gone through, but a leech seed would explain its resilience.

Leech seeds – that was to say, botanical parasites with just enough consciousness to enter a body marked with the user's pheromones as a 'foe' and sap its energy before sending as much of it as possible back to its creator. It could not live without a host, which was why if it didn't enter a living creature – as even ghosts could be affected by the seeds – it would die soon. But once it got in, then it sapped away at any Pokémon's strengths until the infected used some method to get rid of it.

It had been one of the main reasons why she had lost to that aroma lady in the first tournament she had ever entered. She'd done so much research on that one move after losing to it yet she hadn't even noticed it, even when it had been used by a Cherubi on her the first time.

If that wasn't learning from her lessons . . . this was embarrassing, for sure.

"That's right," Gardenia nodded.

The referee reminded Dawn to send out her next Pokémon. Dawn decided against sending in Minerva – a leech seed in her wouldn't be good – and chose Sekhmet.

The Luxio let out a yowl to announce her presence when she landed on the field, intimidating her foe and making the Cherrim back down slightly in fear. Just as she finished, the harsh sunlight toned down – sunny day was over. Without the light around, the Cherrim closed its cloak around itself once more and became a shy-looking purple blossom.

"Sekhmet, take it down. But be careful," she added hastily, "it has leech seed. Go with charge."

Her Luxio remembered leech seed, specifically losing an important battle because of it, and had no intention on suffering its grip again. Sekhmet charged up, letting the electricity fill her fur. She eyed the space between her and her foe, and then began stepping up to the grass type. When magical leaves were released, she used a spark to protect herself from the worst of the damage by frying the leaves that flew in to hit her and weakening their strength.

Once she was in lunging distance, she leapt onto the Cherrim, moving at a much more abrupt pace than the careful one she'd used to make her way over. The Cherrim didn't stand a chance. Sekhmet pinned the flower down like the hunter she was, and bit down at the flower's face.

It was almost like a kiss, because Sekhmet's bite was over the Cherrim's mouth to prevent the grass type from firing off any more leech seeds, especially while Sekhmet was still in close proximity. Except it wasn't – it was clearly painful, and the Cherrim screamed in a muffled manner, unable to fully open its mouth.

Still biting, Sekhmet ran a spark before yanking up the Cherrim – _still_ biting – and throwing the grass type back at the ground. "Magical leaf, with grass knot!" Gardenia shouted urgently as Sekhmet lunged again, this time with her body surrounded by electricity.

The Cherrim shook its purple petal cloaks and released the spell-cast leaves from its folds. Sekhmet ignored the strikes that managed to make it through the spark and threw her body on top of the Cherrim, essentially crushing the grass type with an electric weight while she bit at every part of the flower Pokémon she could reach. Under the heavier Pokémon, the Cherrim shrieked and struggled for a bit, trying to throw the electric type off of itself. Even with its resistance to electricity, there was no denying that the shocks were painful.

Not only that, but the shocks, bright and blinding, kept it from seeing with its own eyes where the next bite would be. It struggled, but Sekhmet outlasted it. Eventually, it stopped moving and the referee declared it Sekhmet's win.

The Luxio got up and licked at her paw, looking too pleased with herself for her own good. "Good job," Dawn called. She'd been vicious, but it had been all under her control. Sekhmet had, in fact, done a good job.

Gardenia nodded, talking to her Pokémon as she recalled it. Then, she took out the last ball and let her last fighter out.

White petals arranged artfully like a rose or a delicate hairstyle on the head. A dark green mask, with lighter green 'skin' on the face under. Red rose bouquets on the right 'hand', blue ones on bunched on the left. A dark green 'cloak' hanging off of its back, rustling with leaves and bristling with hidden thorns.

The Roserade purred.

Roserade happened to be the signature Pokémon of Gardenia. Dawn wasn't sure whether this Roserade happened to be the famous Rubia of her main battling team – the one used in tournaments and grand-scale events – or one of her offspring, but this was the 'boss battle'.

"Charge again, then spark."

"Viridian, stun spore."

So it wasn't her famous Roserade, just a different one she used in battles against gym challengers.

Sekhmet took in a deep breath like she'd been trained before actively seeking to avoid getting her face near the cloud of golden spores. She wasn't as good at avoiding these as Frejya or Minerva, but she could hold her breath and get out of the immediate vicinity of these things before they managed to seep through her skin and affect her through there.

Except, well, she couldn't get out of the immediate vicinity because to do so was to lose the only way to attack the Roserade. Sekhmet decided to back up, out of the cloud, take in another breath of air and then charge ahead, stun spore be damned.

When she began to back up, Viridian lifted the blue bouquet. From between the roses, a few darts were fired and imbedded into Sekhmet's forelegs. The Luxio yelped, and instinctively drew in breath before beginning to cough.

Dawn winced in empathy. Sekhmet had breathed in the spores.

But Sekhmet was stubborn. Ignoring the paralysis spreading through her lungs and the poison stings being fired at her, she charged up again and – this time not having to worry about more status effects – ran with a spark. Her limbs were beginning to stiffen and shake with the paralysis taking effect, but she pushed herself forward to deliver the spark on the Roserade's chest.

The force of the spark let her knock the Roserade down. On top of the grass and poison type, Sekhmet bit and bit until the Roserade recovered from the flinch to release a full-frontal magical leaf, right in several critical areas like her face and neck. Sekhmet yowled, and Viridian took advantage of that to throw the electric type off of her.

One final magical leaf attack finished Sekhmet off, leaving her opponent panting but still very much conscious and good to fight. Viridian lifted the red bouquet to her face, looking like she was wiping sweat off the area around her mouth.

"Thank you," Dawn told Sekhmet as she returned her. "Minerva, you're up!"

She made sure to let the Noctowl out in the air. Minerva took a second to assess the situation and then dove in, ready to peck the grass type to oblivion. She made sure to hold her breath in case of spore attacks.

Viridian straightened. She looked better rested than she had a few seconds ago, almost as she'd recovered from her damages somehow. It couldn't have been an attack that simultaneously recovered health like absorb . . . but it definitely wasn't synthesis either.

A berry, maybe?

Minerva began to peck away at the Roserade, but the grass type was used to dealing with aerial attackers. She held her bouquet arms out to hold off Minerva, keeping her from hurting vital spots on her torso. Minerva tried to maneuver to attack from the back, but all the Roserade had to do was simply turn and shift her weight so that she was facing Minerva again.

Essentially, Minerva was stuck.

And she'd been hoping to get a quick sweep, too.

Well, grass types weren't the only ones capable of inflicting status. "Hypnosis," Dawn said.

Minerva's eyes began to glow. The Roserade stopped resisting, and fell onto her back in forced slumber.

Letting out a quiet hoot of satisfaction, the Noctowl descended to peck away at the sleeping grass type in her leisure. She grounded herself, deciding that she could roost and not have to use energy to keep aloft while her foe was helpless.

"Now!" Gardenia barked.

"Get back in the air!" Dawn screamed as Viridian's eyes flew open, wide and clear eyes showing that the Roserade had only pretended to be hypnotized. Minerva, startled, tried to fly back up, but a burst of stun spores caught her off-guard. In her surprise at the cloud shot into her face, the bird inhaled and almost immediately began coughing. She couldn't get out of the way in time to avoid the following, more damaging burst of magical leaves. All of the enchanted, glowing leaves shot into her torso, making the Noctowl squawk in pain.

The pain, however, managed to make Minerva break through the grip of paralysis and fly back up, relatively out of range. Peck wasn't as viable now, with Minerva slowed down, but there was still uproar.

"Grass knot!"

Grass knot was a move that tripped up the Pokémon and caused them damage according to their weight. Or, at least that was what Dawn knew about the move. She had always assumed that it would only work on grounded Pokémon.

Viridian slammed the two bouquets on its arm into the ground, and Dawn's eyes widened in surprise as strands of grass as wide as her hand and thick as pamphlets rose out of the ground, glowing and thrashing like a pair of Gyarados ascending into the heavens from the whirlpool of waterfalls in Mt. Coronet. Minerva, too, let out a hoot of surprise before the grass caught her and slammed her down onto the ground.

The referee deemed Minerva unable to battle.

That day, Dawn learned two things. One, grass knot could reach even fliers in the hands – or bouquets – of talented and/or well-trained Pokémon. Two, losing was not a good feeling.

* * *

><p>After stepping into the emergency express lineup and handing all her Pokémon over, Dawn snuck off to the bathroom. She walked into the stall furthest from the entrance and locked the swinging door before where she cried in one of the stalls quietly. Just a bit.<p>

Losing was something she wasn't quite used to. Sure, she'd lost in the Jubilife tournament, but back then she had expected to lose, to not do as well as she had. At most she had expected to reach quarter finals.

Here, she had believed that she would win. Despite Barry having warned her of Gardenia's toughness, Dawn had assumed that strength would be enough to carry her over once she had dealt with the standard grass type's strengths.

She had underestimated her opponent, and it had cost her. It was a bitter feeling that made her throat constrict and her eyes burn with tears she tried to hold back. Dawn almost dreaded facing her Pokémon again.

She wanted to be Champion. Yet she'd lost against the second gym leader. How was she supposed to be strong enough to protect Sinnoh, to protect her home if she couldn't even beat the second gym leader?

Dawn let herself wallow in her angst for a while, ignoring the logic and reasoning in her that told her how one mistake didn't automatically mean she was a failure. Once the ten minute waiting time was up, though, she washed her face with cold water, redid her hair, straightened her hat and took several deep breaths to even out her breathing. She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The skin around her eyes, despite her best efforts, was still slightly puffy and red, but Dawn was determined to ignore the swelled feeling.

When her throat constricted at the thought of facing her Pokémon, she gave herself a light slap on the cheek. Time to steel up.

Dawn stepped out of the bathroom and went up to pick up her Pokémon from the nurse. Grabbing their balls, she marched to the room she was staying in and entered before shutting the door and locking it. This was between her and her Pokémon, and no one else.

She nearly faltered when she saw the four Poké balls, wanting to somehow run away and not deal with the shame of losing, but then she hardened her heart. Life wasn't kind. If she cried and whined and tried to run away from every single problem –

Well, she might as well have been a spoiled, rich, bratty kid, dependent on her family's fortunes instead of making something for herself out there in the world. Whatever she made in the world, she wanted it to be meaningful.

And sometimes, meaningful meant painful.

She released her Pokémon in the room that they were setting base in. "So we lost," she began bluntly.

Minerva hung her head in shame. "It's no one's fault," she said, patting the Noctowl on her back. Minerva must have felt particularly terrible. She had evolved after taking down one of the mandatory gym trainers, just like Neptune had, but that hadn't stopped Gardenia from curb-stomping them all. "You were amazing. Remember how none of the trainers could stand up to you? Hm?"

Then she turned to Frejya. "You were awesome. Remember how you just punched through that counter shield like it was nothing? Gardenia was so surprised when you were all, 'pfft, this is nothing' and just went right through, and that Turtwig was all 'holy crap this Buneary'."

Sekhmet, she had to wrestle the fact that it hadn't been her fault into her stubborn head. "You were fine. Just fine. Now stop moping! Where's your usual swag, huh? Where's the Sekhmet that terrorizes Starly and gets ketchup around her mouth?"

For that she got a half-hearted nip on her fingers. It wasn't enough to draw blood, but it stung. Dawn took the same finger and flicked the Luxio's forehead. From there, it moved on into a Growlithe pile on Sekhmet. The Luxio, after even Frejya had joined in, gave off a few charges to warn her teammates, but there was a grin on her face, especially after Dawn began tickling her sides with squirming fingers.

Once making Sekhmet cheer up was successful, Dawn got back onto her feet. One Pokémon hadn't joined the Growlithe pile – the one that should have been the first to jump and join in.

The leader of her team sat, stony faced and quiet, in the corner of the room. Knowing him and his pride, Neptune was probably punishing himself by cutting off any sources of fun and happiness.

That wasn't what she wanted the leader of her team doing. She went to the corner and reached out to grab his flipper.

Neptune yanked his flipper back, and then in a small fit he pecked at her hand. Hard. Dawn stared at the spot he had pecked, watching the blood drawn out by the peck. The pain hit after the blood had beaded, but the stinging sensation was nothing compared to the shock.

Neptune had never intentionally hurt her before. Sure, a few lighthearted slaps back when he'd been a Piplup, or that accidental peck every now and then when she was close up to him while he pecked to observe him in the middle of an attack, but never on purpose.

Neptune grimaced at the spot of blood on her hand, but he didn't make any signs of apologizing. He held his stance.

Dawn clenched her fist. _He_ knew he felt sorry, _she_ knew he felt sorry, why couldn't he just give up on past things and let his pride go?

She was about to raise her voice at him, demanding that he give up on this self-inflicted punishment and make him see things from the right point of view when she remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She was supposed to be killing ego.

And it wasn't exactly killing ego when she imposed her own opinions onto others through force. That just made her as bad as any common bully, just as bad as Inferno.

The wound throbbed under the pressure of her clenching her hand into a fist, and she let it go. It still hurt, but it wasn't serious. She'd been hurt worse before because of either hers or Barry's stupidity. This was nothing.

She couldn't very well impose her own opinions onto him. Neptune, with his pride, would just reject it for the sake of upholding his principles. They would make up – eventually, hopefully – but tension in partnerships weakened them.

Mespirit's temples taught those that attended to emphasize; to wear the shoes of others and see through their eyes before judging them.

Dawn reached out again, but didn't touch Neptune. She just held her hand out – the one not bleeding – and held it up, waiting as she looked through the eyes of her first partner.

Neptune, she knew, was like her. He was proud, he liked to lead and he liked to win. He had ambition burning in his belly, and the willpower to see that ambition put to good use.

And right now, after a loss that was a blow to his pride, he was punishing himself to make sure that it never happened again. He never wanted to lose again, to never feel that bitter sense of loss she had felt while crying in the bathroom.

Ideally, she would want that too. To never lose, to always win no matter what sounded great to her.

Realistically, she knew she would lose sometimes, at the very least. It was one of the many lessons her mother and Palmer had drilled into her, over and over again. To never expect to always win was the best thing she could do for herself, they had told her.

It was hard to do. She wanted to win. Being the _Champion_ meant not _losing_.

But they were right. Dawn couldn't expect to always win – that much was obvious from the day's failed gym challenge. And if she wanted her team to do the same and accept that without being bitter or crushed, then the team leader had to be a good role model.

"You're my team leader," she said quietly. "What kind of an example are you going to set for everyone else if you just brood in the corner moping?"

Dawn chanced a look behind her back. Sekhmet, Frejya and Minerva weren't exactly the types to smile and offer high fives or group hugs of shining, friendship-loaded support – those would probably have to be instigated by a later member, possibly Mystery Egg's inhabitant, or herself in the future – but they stood strong and expectantly. They had accepted him as the leader of the team, but he had to show them why he deserved the spot. Being the trainer's starter Pokémon just wasn't good enough of a reason. He had to prove himself.

And if there was one way to mend a bruised pride, it was to offer a challenge to prove oneself. To redeem oneself.

Neptune held still for a few moments longer before his shoulders slumped. He reached out and slapped his flipper into her waiting palm as if he was exasperated.

Dawn smiled at the progress. Her smile only widened further when Neptune patted her bleeding hand to wipe away the red as best as he could. He tried to not look concerned, but his façade was broken when she winced at the rough way he tried to brush off the blood and he squawked an apology instinctively.

Alright, she was instigating that group hug. She herded all of her Pokémon together before gathering them up in her admittedly short arms and hugging them all to the best of her ability.

Neptune protested, and Sekhmet joined his complaining. Minerva and Frejya bore it stoically, and Dawn knew they were all alright.

Eventually she had to let them out from the circle of group hugging. "You all tried your best," she said, "and followed my strategy perfectly, so if anyone made a mistake, it's me. I should have come up with a back-up strategy, and we should have trained for a few more days before challenging the gym. We should have backed out when Minerva evolved, so she could get used to her new form. I shouldn't have just challenged the gym so early, actually – that was just cocky on my part. And I can keep listing all the maybes that could have happened if only this or that, or we can go and train."

In the end it had been her fault – she had been arrogant. Just because they had won Oreburgh's badge in one shot without days of proper preparing before, just because Neptune had been able to adapt to evolving in the middle of the challenge, just because she had been overconfident and assumed that Eterna would be the same as the last gym, they had lost.

And why had she been so arrogant, so sure they could win without working? Part of it was because of the easy time they had with Oreburgh's gym, sure, but there was also Barry, who had swept into the city and earned the badge before she had even set foot in Eterna.

Just because she had tried to go by Barry's speed, they had lost.

The loss was humbling, and left a bitter taste in her mouth. Dawn decided that she'd have to get rid of arrogance – murder it – just so she wouldn't have to taste it again. She couldn't become Champion of Sinnoh if she was going to be arrogant and blind.

She was Dawn Steele. She was privileged, ambitious and she was going to become Champion. _She_ set the pace. The pace, the scale she used to measure herself was _her_ own, and no one else's. Not another Champion in some other region, not other trainers around herself, not her family's, not even her rival and long-time friend's. _Hers_.

And it was time she remembered that.

She took a deep breath in to replenish the oxygen she had lost while pep-talking. "So what's it going to be?"

They all agreed that training and learning a new strategy would be better. Dawn carried the egg hamper out, and they made their way to Route 211, where a ninja boy bragged that he would easily defeat them. Minerva took him out singlehandedly without even breaking a sweat, outmaneuvering the ninja's Pokémon at every turn.

"See?" she said to the Noctowl, who held considerably more self-esteem in herself than before the battle.

"Dawn?"

Neptune gave a caw of recognition as he saw the boy with the blue hair and strangely shaped hat. Dawn waved when she saw Lucas, and a Monferno that had to be Charlotte at his side. "Hey, Lucas," she gave him a nod. "Working hard and catching Pokémon for the Pokédex, I see."

"I've been working on it," he said modestly. "I've been checking out the Sinnoh Underground as well, in hopes of finding a few fossils. You?"

She gestured around at her four. "Mostly seeing and recording. How's life for you?"

Lucas patted Charlotte's head when she tugged at his pant legs. "Good. Not attacked by any thugs recently, if that counts. What about you? Have you challenged the gym yet?"

"I have," she made a face. "And because of my poor judgement, we lost."

Her Pokémon all protested. Even Frejya made a start, making the soothe bell around her neck jingle.

"I think they disagree," Lucas noted with just the hint of amusement audible in his voice.

"Oh well," Dawn shrugged, trying to hide her pleased reaction. Was it arrogant to be happy that one's Pokémon would stand up for one's sake? Probably, but it made her too happy to really care as much as she should have. "We'll win next time."

Because it was nearing noon and the two of them had already conducted their business within the area – Lucas captured members of species native to the region and then released them after taking down data for his Pokédex, Dawn took down the few trainers present with ease – they decided to drop by somewhere to eat.

"If you're having a hard time with Gardenia," he suggested as they chatted while in line for some food at a local restaurant. "Why not catch a fire Pokémon?"

Dawn made a sound that didn't promise much commitment. "I don't know," she said. "I have four members on my team already. I mean, I'll probably catch more Pokémon, but still. Right now it feels like I've got more than enough on my hands. It's still early in the stage, you know? Besides," she added. "The only ones really in the area are Ponyta, and I'm not a fan of them."

"You don't like Ponyta?" he asked, surprised at the thought of a girl not liking a pony to give them rides.

"I don't really have a good experience with them."

When she had been eight, her mother had signed her up for riding lessons. Ponyta could control the fire of their mane to not burn the rider, but the one she'd ridden had been young, and not as good with its control. When a loud sound had startled it, Dawn's butt had been set on fire. She hadn't been burned, but Dawn was still a bit traumatized, as well as absolutely mortified that the really good-looking, older riding instructor had seen her in such a state.

Well, not _traumatized_. But she didn't really like the idea of using a fiery horse.

"Oh. Well, how about borrowing Charlotte?"

The fire monkey started at his words. Dawn noticed. "Thanks," she tried to sound as grateful and sincere as possible. Not all boys were incredibly resilient like Barry, but she was pretty sure that they weren't exactly fragile glass either. Her problem simply lay in gauging their strength and making sure she didn't scar or scare them too much. "But I don't think I'll feel that it's our victory until we work towards it ourselves. Besides, you should have asked Charlotte that question first. She looks a bit hurt."

Lucas looked thunderstruck, and then began to apologize to Charlotte. The fire monkey took it all in good humour.

The conversation turned, then, to strategies she could use in battle. "I rushed, and tried to push through with power," she admitted, flushing a bit. "And she definitely had strategies to deal with that. Hey, don't judge."

"I won't," he promised, straight-faced.

Dawn, not quite believing him, finished the last of her fried Magikarp and chips. "Can you just watch over this for a moment?" she gently pushed the egg hamper towards him. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Alright," Lucas said.

Dawn began to walk away . . . but stopped from going in completely. When Lucas made a gesture of questioning at her, she responded by pointing at the door, then making exaggerated movements with her hand. A lineup. A _long_ lineup.

Dawn was gone from eyesight when the basket she had entrusted him began to glow.

Lucas yelped, unsure about what to do. Did he yell for Dawn? But she was in the bathroom and probably couldn't hear him unless he went in and –

No, he wasn't going to finish that thought.

"What do I do?" he whispered out a wail of despair. Despite all the time he had spent in Professor Rowan's laboratory studying Pokémon, this was the first experience he had dealing with an egg hatching. The professor specialized in evolution, not breeding.

Was he supposed to hold it? What if he was supposed to do something and he didn't? Would that result in the Pokémon getting hurt?

Lucas grimaced. He was probably never going to be ready for fatherhood.

Charlotte was smarter and simply opened the hamper just in time to see an egg hatch into a Togepi.

The baby Pokémon appeared to be perfectly healthy, much to his relief. He gave it a small smile and waved awkwardly, unsure of what to do. He was unprepared for the huge smile the baby Pokémon gave him. The small newborn in the remnants of the white shell squealed and threw itself into his arms. Somehow, despite the shock of a baby Pokémon hatching in front of him, he managed to catch him. In his arms, the Togepi cooed and burrowed closer to his chest.

Flabbergasted, he stuttered out what had happened to Dawn when she returned and didn't understand why she slapped her forehead and groaned.

All the while, the Togepi clung to him happily.

* * *

><p>AN: According to Bulbapedia and BW2, there was a bug catchergym leader in Sinnoh that quit his job to be E4. I gave him more of a backstory because Sinnoh's E4 are almost boring in their lack of a background. Except Flint, but he's like the only exception.

So ORAS and the Delta Episode (or the Bombshell, as I like to call it). Surprisingly, it actually fits into what I had planned in this universe with just a few tweaks (omg Zinnia I want to ship her with AZ for some reason she's so cool).

Special thanks to delcatty546, who helped me write the battle scene.


	10. The Immeasurable Treasures

A.S.107

July 27th

_Why do people hurt each other? Why do people have to hurt each other? _

* * *

><p>Lucas 'let' her name the Togepi, since she'd been carrying him around and all. Dawn 'let' him keep the Togepi – Cupid, for the white wings of its evolutions – since he refused to let go of the other boy.<p>

"So much like Lyra's," she muttered, thinking of what to tell her over their chats later. On one hand, their jokes had hit the nail dead-on. On the other, no Togepi wedding.

Professor Rowan's youngest aide had to go on. "I'll be seeing you around," he said. Cupid had initially thrown a tantrum when he was about to be put in a Poké ball, but after Charlotte demonstrated going in and coming out safely, had gone in quietly.

"Bye."

The boy went off on his bike. Dawn let her hand drop before she raced against her Pokémon to the nearest patch of grass. She lost, but that was fine.

Now that she no longer had an egg to take care of, she was no longer spared from the intense training. Dawn had to run and keep up with the others even when she felt like she was going to die of muscle failure.

Neptune poked at her ribs when she collapsed, her legs too much like jelly to support her weight. "I know," she sighed. "You think I shouldn't have given Cupid to Lucas."

Another poke. _So why did you?_

"Because Cupid looked so happy with Lucas!" she threw her hands up slightly. "He did that weird maternal imprint thing with Lucas and I didn't want to have to break that. Losing a parent isn't fun," she added quietly.

Her starter understood after that, and let her off. They had a lot of newbies, anyways, he told himself, and no time to be taking care of babies.

When she caught her breath, Dawn grabbed her bag and took out ropes made into different knots. "We're going to practice tripping and falling," she told everyone. Grass knot damaged the foe by tripping them through the manipulation of grass. If her Pokémon knew how to fall properly like kids learning martial arts or gymnastics did, then the damage caused by grass knot would – theoretically – be lessened because they would know how to lessen the impact of hitting the ground.

She had borrowed a few mats from the Eterna Gym so that they could get used to falling and instinctively go into the safer falling position when they were in actual battle. The storage room had been well stocked with lots of good, thick mats. Apparently, she wasn't the first to have Pokémon practice falling either.

Now, dragging up memories from her youth back when she learned martial arts and research she'd done to refresh her memory, Dawn began to talk. "When you're falling forward – which you'll most likely be doing a lot – you want to bend at your knees so you fold forwards."

She demonstrated, folding her body so that the impact was lost. "Then you slap your palms to the ground and turn your face while making sure that your head doesn't directly hit the ground."

This was doable for Neptune and Frejya, whose body shapes were similar to a humans enough for them to emulate what she had done. Sekhmet and Minerva just looked at her, not even bothering to try it out.

Dawn told Neptune and Frejya to practice falling on a mat each, and then moved onto the other two Pokémon. "For you," she told Minerva, "when you're being yanked down from the air you make sure that your wings will be safe. Keep them stretched to the sky so that even when a grass knot slams you to the ground, they won't twist or break or anything. After that initial tug, there should be wiggle room in your binds. You have to be quick and get out of the knots before they tighten on you, and to do that your wings need to be ready to go whenever."

They would practice this with Minerva being yanked down onto the ground with the use of a rope knotted around one of her legs. The Noctowl wasn't thrilled at the idea of being constantly yanked down and ruffling her feathers, but Dawn promised that it wouldn't be done too harshly, and she recognized the validity behind it. She didn't want to lose the larger wings of a Noctowl, and she wanted better control over them.

As for Sekhmet, grass knot was going to be tricky. If it was a knot around one leg, it would be easier to recover because she had three other legs and a tail to regain balance, or at least cushion her fall.

If it was more than one leg incapacitated, though, that made it harder to recover from. Any combination of legs being tied down by grass knot was going to be hard.

This problem gave Dawn a bit of trouble. Eventually, it was decided that Sekhmet would try to rip and bite her way out of grass knots to the best of her ability, and fall with her face to the side and tongue tucked firmly away from her teeth to minimize injuries. Sekhmet had to practice throwing herself down onto the mat-covered ground without falling chin-first or biting her tongue. If she was less hurt or stunned by the fall, they could get up faster.

Dawn watched them all fall on purpose and then get right back up to do it all over again. None of them complained, even if it was obviously uncomfortable. They were just as determined as she was to get it right, and one loss wasn't going to stop them from getting right back onto their feet.

There was other training to do after the falling practice was done. Minerva's aerial manoeuvring needed work, and the rest of them needed to have some sort of strategy in mind before the next gym battle. If they didn't practice and prepare, they would lose.

But at that moment, watching them get right back onto their feet after every fall gave her a lot of hope.

* * *

><p>"Back so soon?" Gardenia asked.<p>

"You bet," Dawn said, releasing Minerva, who let out a quiet but deadly sounding hoot.

Nodding, Gardenia started with the same Pokémon – a sturdy Turtwig.

Last time, she had relied on power and speed to push through. Pound away with rock smashes and quick attacks and hope that it would work. Because of her experience with Champ, she had thought she knew how to deal with it.

Last time, it hadn't worked. Gardenia's Pokémon had retaliated. Other than the Turtwig, the other two had been quick enough to strike back or hold off her assaults.

So this time, Dawn started off with Minerva, and not just attacking but doing something else entirely. "Hypnosis," she said. Fight status with status. If Gardenia wanted to make the battles long and dragged out, she had to be ready for the attrition and throw in her own dragging into the battle.

Mo the Turtwig blinked, and suddenly deadly serious eyes were looking into his own. They were swirling – almost – and the soft hoots given as commands were so nice to follow . . . .

He didn't even hear his own trainer shouting his name as he slipped off into sleep. His body struggled with the imposed sleep, but by the time he struggled to awake it was too late. Minerva struck the finishing blow and flew up into the air while her foe slumped into the grassy field, all without Dawn giving her a single command after the first one. Loud noises, unless they were something along the lines of an uproar attack, normally didn't wake up Pokémon forced into sleep. Despite that, Dawn didn't want anything to contribute to the foe waking up, noises included.

That was what they had devoted themselves to after the first day of training as a way to stop the foe's Pokémon from wrecking them. In the first challenge attempt Dawn had been reluctant to use hypnosis because it wasn't as reliable as she would have liked, but this was a chance she was willing to take. Forced into sleep on the battlefield, the gym leader's Pokémon would be incapable of attacking for the short period of time their bodies struggled to wake up from the imposed temporary coma in the face of danger. A short time, admittedly, but during which most of their defenses would have been dropped, leaving them as helpless, sitting Psyduck.

It was a gamble worth taking.

The plan was, Minerva would put them to sleep before attacking them continuously with peck. Dawn gave no other verbal commands to let the hypnosis stay on as long as possible. She didn't have to – the foe was knocked out, and no other instructions were necessary after that.

"Sleep handicap," Gardenia noted, recalling her Turtwig. She was smirking, though. "Very smart. Cerise, safeguard."

_That_ hadn't come up in the last battle. "Hypnosis, go!" Dawn shouted, a bit more frantic now. If safeguard got up, then Gardenia was free to essentially wreak havoc. Cherrim would put up a fight, and if Minerva expended too much of herself taking it down, then she wouldn't be able to last long against that Roserade of hers. She could switch, of course, but that would make her lose her momentum, and to properly pull off hypnosis they needed all the momentum they could get.

The flower Pokémon, under her shy violet cloak, began to chant the spells for the mystical veil softly, but Minerva swept down unexpectedly and let out a hoot that could have been a snarl much like Sekhmet's through her beak – something the Noctowl had picked up from hanging around the intimidating Luxio that was her teammate. Surprised, Cerise hesitated in her spell-casting.

"Go!"

Minerva didn't need to be told twice. She began to hoot, softly but urgently, drawing her foe into a hypnotic spell.

Cerise slumped, and Minerva began to peck at the purple petal cloak. Time was of the utmost and –

"Hoot?!" Minerva made a strangled hoot of surprise and flew up into the air, away from the foe. The Cherrim hopped away, clearly awake as the Noctowl began to circle in the air, doing several acrobatic tricks. Almost like she was trying to shake something off.

"Back," Dawn ordered, and Minerva rose higher. She didn't stop her constant, near-frantic movements, though.

By now the safeguard was up for sure, which meant that for some time hypnosis was useless. The question was whether she continued to use Minerva or –

Something green glinted in the air. Dawn stopped thinking and stared again. There – right there, a small green light that didn't have a source in any of the gym's plentiful flora. In fact, it looked like grains of shiny green dust leading to the Cherrim.

Minerva was still doing her tricks up in the air, out of reach as Dawn had ordered, but her movements were clearly slowing at a rate faster than it should have been. Like she was paralyzed – unlikely – or losing health steadily. Losing health steadily as someone – or some_thing_ – sapped at her stamina.

Cerise. _Leech seeds_.

Dawn wanted something like defog that could remove the leech seeds so she wouldn't have to give up her momentum and let Minerva wreak havoc on the grass types. She had to settle for returning Minerva instead. Like she had suspected, something green fell to the ground where it squirmed and wiggled for a few moments before falling still.

"That was a leech seed," she said to Gardenia, who smiled widely. She should have picked up on that sooner and realized just why Minerva was making those movements. Instead, she'd been distracted by the safeguard that had gone through to realize immediately.

Lucky a simple recall was more than enough to remove it from the infected Pokémon. After calling Minerva back to her ball, but hesitated on sending the next Pokémon. Who to send? And, while making the choice, Dawn tried to stall to wear down at the spell cast on the other side. Cerise the Cherrim hopped a few times around on the arena, healthy and ready to fight with the mystic glow of the safeguard still going strong. And there was still that Roserade to be dealt with, too.

After a few more seconds of thought – even that was really pushing it, judging from the stink-eye the referee gave her – Dawn sent out Frejya.

Buneary were one of the many Pokémon that only evolved with high levels of 'happiness'. Exactly what determined this factor for Pokémon in the wild was still being investigated – Professor Rowan being one of the lead researchers after he had debunked the former theory of a high-enough dopamine release – but in captivity, it was the connection the Pokémon felt with its trainer that pushed them over to evolve.

Unfortunately, Dawn and Frejya weren't close enough for the Buneary to have evolved into Lopunny.

That didn't mean that she couldn't fight. "Quick attack," Dawn ordered. "Keep an eye out, she's got safeguard up to stop any statuses. It's that shiny glow around the Cherrim."

In a brown and tan blur of movement, Frejya leapt close before body-checking the Cherrim. When the flower Pokémon was knocked over, Frejya didn't stop moving and continued her quick movements until she was out of physical range.

That wasn't a problem for the gym leader. "Follow her with magical leaf," Gardenia ordered calmly. "And use the Buneary's momentum to cause more damage when you can."

Cerise fluttered her purple cloak, and a handful of leaves beginning to glow green detached before shooting out, edges sharp and eager to gouge flesh. Every last one of them hit the Buneary, spade-like leaves cutting and slicing Frejya's skin. Unlike tennis balls and razor leaves, magical leaves simply couldn't be avoided without some external aid. Their magic ensured that they hit their targets.

But she still stood, and the distance made the magical leaves lose some of their strength, after having to travel the extra expanse to reach Frejya. More importantly, the Cherrim hadn't _closed_ the distance achieved through quick attack's continuation. It wasn't a far distance – a few meters, maybe a bit less – but it was close enough for Frejya to watch over the silver glow Dawn had pointed out to her.

Before Dawn could get Frejya to do anything else, though, the glow faded from the Cherrim's body – safeguard had expired. Cherrim immediately began to chant to recast and renew the spell. No time to change for Minerva.

Frejya didn't need to be told that there was an opening. She charged with another quick attack, striking on target again. This time, instead of moving away, she stayed and began to smash the plant Pokémon's body with both her ears, putting enough force behind the punches to smash through weakened rocks.

The grass type winced at the blows to her torso, but didn't relent her chanting. The safeguard sprang back up a few seconds later, and once the defenses were covered Cerise was ready to fight back to defend herself and take down her foe.

Gardenia didn't choose to counter with magical leaf again. This time, she decided to go with – "Grass knot!"

The grass sprang forwards to move, snaking and knotting seemingly on its own just like it had during the last gym battle as if it had a will of its own. The knots all surged towards the foe Pokémon, eager to hold down a foe and tangle them up into tripping down. Frejya's feet tangled up and the grass yanked insistently, knocking her off of her feet and slamming her into the ground. Frejya fell like she was supposed to, reducing the overall damage, but when her back was vulnerable Cerise spat some leech seeds onto it and planted them firmly.

Dawn returned her and opted to send out her Luxio, the one that had taken down Cerise last time. Sekhmet, finally out, charged immediately without any preamble and began to tear at the weakened Cherrim with vicious bites, intent on a repeat performance. Worn out, Cerise finally fell unconscious.

Gardenia recalled her. After thanking the Cherrim, she pulled out the last Poké ball.

As Dawn predicted, it was the Roserade – Viridian – again. The Cherrim's last safeguard was still up – hypnosis was still out of the viable options.

But that was fine, it could still work. Sekhmet was switched for Frejya, who knew what to do.

Gardenia, though, understood what she was up to. "Quick attack to close the distance and either escape after a quick hit," she noted as Frejya surged past the Roserade, "or to get there fast, right?"

Leaves, suddenly glowing green, were pulled from surrounding shrubs and sprinkled in the air instead of being pulled from Viridian. They tracked and followed Frejya as she made a turn and used another quick attack to hit at Viridian. Not even one of them accidentally hit the Roserade even when Frejya was jumping and making hairpin swerves. They hit hard, not losing power behind their strikes from distance like other magical leaves did.

So Viridian had enough power over the magical leaves to make sure that quick movements weren't enough to weaken their blows, not even by a Buneary's speed. That, and she could also use leaves from other places just as well as hers. It wouldn't only be frontal attacks she'd have to worry about getting hit from. Dawn made note of that as Frejya began to charge towards the Roserade in her third quick attack.

"Grass knot."

She'd been expecting this, but it didn't make it any less painful for her to watch when Frejya tripped. Luckily for both of them Frejya was light, and didn't take as much damage as she reduced her impact to the ground in perfect falling form. She was up again after quickly kicking off the knots that had loosened with her fall, stoic as always.

Gardenia saw, and changed tactics according to what she was presented with. "Poison sting."

"Quick attack!"

It wasn't one poisoned barb that was shot out from the Roserade's deceptively pretty rose bouquets, but dozens, far more than during the last challenge. Frejya dodged a lot of them, but she was hit too, peppered with the poisonous stingers.

She still charged towards the Roserade. Hitting with one more quick attack, she did just as Gardenia had predicted and stayed. Then, she began to punch with both her ears in consecutive rock smashes again. Dawn didn't tell her to do something different.

Gardenia frowned in puzzlement at that choice. It was one of the rarer type matchups and she was pretty young, so perhaps Challenger Dawn didn't know that poison types resisted fighting types?

And she had seemed like such a smart trainer, too. Right now, this was a third or even a fourth-badge level kind of battle she was getting.

Dawn was hoping she would have been able to tell when it happened, but just like how Gardenia hadn't yet noticed what Frejya had been up to in the times between the quick attack-dodges, she couldn't see as closely as she would have liked. It was, after all, based on luck. Luck and chance. She could have gotten the results she'd been after in the first few seconds of the engagement, or she might not be able to get it before Frejya fainted.

She had to bite the insides of her cheeks to stop herself from smiling when she saw it – Viridian winced when one of the punches had hit particularly hard.

Dawn knew that fighting type moves weren't as effective against poison types, but there was a reason why she wanted Frejya to use it in battle whenever she could. The thing about rock smash was, it punched in a way designed to break through rocks. When used on a Pokémon, it weakened their defense by breaking through it like it broke through rocks. Because of this sometimes, when the move was used, it lowered the defense of the Pokémon hit. The damage done to the Pokémon would probably be lower, thanks to the type disadvantage, but if the defense was lowered and more effective, physical moves were used . . . .

She returned Frejya, who had done her part, and sent out Neptune.

Gardenia eyed the water type, weighed out some options in her head, and then ordered Viridian to use stun spore. The Roserade shuffled on her feet, gauging her foe's reaction rate, and then feinted a few times before actually coming close and having her red and blue roses release the paralyzing pollen.

Neptune was ready. He opened his beak and shot a thick, continuous stream of bubble beam until the drifting stun spores were all too damp to reach his lungs. Likewise, the Roserade's bouquets were too wet to properly release stun spores. During extra flour training, Neptune had grown tired of getting flour in his beak and settled to making everything wet with a strong water sport.

Getting the idea from his use of water to disable powder moves, the two of them had experimented to see just which move was best suited for stopping spores from reaching Neptune. Bubble, water sport and bubble beam had almost identical results, but bubble beam caused the greatest amount of damage on top of stopping the spores, and served as a good distraction to hold off the foe while they set something up on their side.

The bubbles from the bubble beam exploded in Viridian's face when met with the irritants of the dampened spores. Feeling pushed, Viridian began to reach for the sitrus berry she held in cases of battle emergencies like this when Neptune dove through the veil of bubbles and began pecking.

No, not pecking – plucking. The Roserade had her berry plucked away from her, and had to watch her foe eat it right in front of her.

Dawn had gone over the footage of the battle to see the mistakes she had made, and noticed what the foe Pokémon had done during the challenge. One of the things, like she had suspected, was that the Roserade had snuck a berry to her mouth to recover from the damage. She guessed – hoped – that it wouldn't be something as specific as a figi berry that could potentially cause confusion and had taught Neptune the move pluck through a TM she had.

Neptune used that move gleefully. Not only was it super effective on the grass type, but it also let him steal and eat the berry in front of his foe. He could have very well been using taunt on the Roserade for the effect it had on her.

Snarling in outrage, Viridian pointed her bouquets in front of her like two deadly projectiles about to be fired, ready to release the magical leaves that wouldn't be hindered by a bit of water like her spores.

Before she could, Dawn switched Neptune for Minerva. At the same time, the mystical veil that had been protecting the Roserade flickered away into nothing.

Safeguard had worn out.

Gardenia changed tactics, recognizing the loss of protection. "Poison sting!"

Minerva shrieked when the stingers peppered her face, but she was still able to hypnotize Viridian after a few attempts. From then on, it was almost too easy, finishing up the battle.

* * *

><p>"Much better," Gardenia told her as she handed Dawn her own Forest Badge, along with a TM for grass knot. "You had a strategy to go along with strength and conditioning this time around. It was rigid, and relied on free switching a bit too much for my liking, but it was a good one for the guidelines you had."<p>

Rigid? Dawn had thought that she had adopted to the situation pretty well. She must have pouted a bit, because Gardenia smiled slightly. "Take criticism like medicine," she said. "It's good for you – after all, no one's perfect. Why not allow others to spot what you may have missed?"

It was more of a matter of pride for her. Despite her attempts to murder her ego, it was hard to do given her competition. Barry, after all, hadn't lost to Gardenia or Roark. He had just won in his first try. With his speed, he was probably already at the third city for a badge.

The gym leader sighed. "Do you know why most times, a trained Pokémon will be superior to a wild one?"

Taken back slightly at the question, Dawn shrugged. "Better fed?" she asked, citing the reason she'd grown up hearing.

"Perhaps that could have something to do with it," Gardenia allowed. "But the key difference is the intelligence. Strength can only get you so far – look at history! Eterna was a center of information and knowledge, a place for the intelligent clerics to gather and share thoughts back in Sinnoh's older days. There was a reason why Eterna's past residents survived, and it was because they were smart. They couldn't outfight their opponents, but they could certainly out_think_ their opponents in battle and war.

"Training is the same. A trainer doesn't just help a Pokémon get stronger in brute physical strength. There's more to the profession than that, no matter what people tend to say and think. Every factor around you can be a blessing or a curse in battle, depending on whether you know how to use it or not. Extensive planning, foresight, coordination and self-knowledge – _those_ are the qualities of a trainer. _Not_," Gardenia gave her a cool look. "Sheer force."

Dawn nodded, but winced internally. Thinking on her feet – that was something she had to learn and experience more. It was one thing to hear it from Uncle Palmer and another thing to experience it firsthand, but –

Her heart nearly stopped. Both Uncle Palmer and Barry were speedy people by nature. Being a fast thinker, being overwhelming in presence alone . . . there was a reason why Uncle Palmer was so good at what he did. Was that why Barry was doing so well in earning badges quickly?

Despite her attempts to not push through on strength alone, so far she'd relied on sheer force, just like Gardenia had said. Did that make her a bad trainer?

Gardenia's face softened. "It's alright, you know," she said. "Your first battle with me – sure, you relied too much on your Pokémon's sheer strengths – but the one we just had now? I would have put it somewhere along the third, maybe fourth-badge level. And remember, you not only knocked all of my Pokémon out, but had all of yours still standing in the end. That's still something. You've got potential, Dawn. You're going to go far, so don't worry and just work hard."

Dawn put everything away. "Thank you," she said quietly. It might have been something a gym leader said to protect her public image, or just a nice-hearted person saying nice things to not hurt feelings, but it still reminded her that she had a long way to go and moping wasn't going to do anything.

Gardenia was right. She had to bend her pride and take criticism like desperately-needed medicine. She had to learn.

"You're welcome," Gardenia smiled at her.

* * *

><p>Strategy.<p>

Dawn remembered going to tournaments with Barry to cheer on Uncle Palmer. The light shows from colliding attacks had been impressive, but beyond the fancy lights there had been a fast and furious dance going on, a battle where two strong minds grappled with each other, trying to win dominance over each other through their Pokémon. A trainer had called out the words dictating a certain step or move and the Pokémon had made it a reality, executing manoeuvres and attacks perfectly.

It involved extensive planning, and more advanced training than the simple 'hit-the-target-as-fast-as-you-can' and 'run-run-run-run-run-_dodge'_ tactics she'd been using. It was something she'd have to work at to use effectively, with all her Pokémon.

She needed more experience. She needed to better connect with her Pokémon – understand them more. She needed practice.

Both Routes 211 and 205 had been trained on extensively by her Pokémon. Dawn wanted somewhere with a bit of an unfamiliar setting, and found their temporary training ground in a small field just off Route 205.

Sekhmet was working on a charge-spark combination when Minerva hooted angrily. Dawn turned and saw to where her Noctowl was gesturing at. A short distance away from the field they were in stood the odd building with spikes on its sides. The residents of the city claimed that it belonged to Team Galactic, and the grunts hadn't said anything to the contrary. Because this wasn't like the case at the Windworks she couldn't quite go gallivanting in, and the police hadn't been willing to do anything.

But Minerva was pointing at the side door, where two grunts were dragging in what looked like an unconscious guy.

"Hey, team?" she asked quietly. "Change of plans."

* * *

><p>The police took down her words and politely thanked her. When she saw that the officers were in more of a hurry to reach the donuts an attractive female cop brought in at that moment than to go down knocking at Galactic doors, she decided to take matters into her own hands and marched into the building herself.<p>

Perhaps Gardenia had been onto something with strategy and thinking things through in a short span of time under some pressure, because the moment she walked in the building her arm was grabbed by a grunt. Neptune, at her side, swiped with a deadly metal claw that was dodged hastily.

And luckily, too, because the grunt turned out to be Looker in disguise.

"I already told the police about this like you told me to do," she said before he could get a word in edgewise after revealing his identity.

"I don't care," he said, beginning to shrug his disguise back on. "Leave – this is dangerous."

But there was stubbornness in Dawn, and she _knew_ she could make a bigger difference than the donut-obsessed cops of Eterna who were too scared to act in fear of a lawsuit. The stubbornness in her demanded that she not abandon someplace where she could make a difference, no matter what someone told her. "No," she said, tilting her chin up in obstinacy.

He could have removed her by force, but to do so would have been to cause a ruckus – therefore giving himself away. He saw this as well. "This isn't a game," he tried to warn her.

She shrugged – she knew that – and tried to go by him anyways.

He sighed and cleared his throat. "Be wary of the stairs – there are more of them than needed. It seems that the building's design was made complicated on purpose in order to trap intruders and infiltrators."

Dawn stopped. He wasn't approving of this by any means, but he was giving her advice. "So I shouldn't just go recklessly up any pair of stairs."

"Precisely. But do not worry – these crooks are not smart. There will be an easy way to distinguish between the two. That I am sure of."

He replaced his disguise – she marvelled at the flawlessness – went ahead, looked around a bit before waving her in to signal the all-clear.

She went ahead, and didn't look back. Despite Looker giving her the clear, she knew he didn't approve. She wouldn't have approved herself – this was a really bad idea, and she knew it.

But Dawn felt like she had to do it. She had to stand up against those who would stomp on the rights of others. If someone didn't stand up to bullies, the bullies won. And in front of her, bullies would not win.

"I know this is really stupid," she told Neptune after bringing him out, "but let's actually go and disable whatever traps they have set up for us."

Her starter sent her a flat look. "C'mon, we could totally do it," she coaxed. "And think about it – there's probably more of them upstairs, and if we don't wipe out the ones down then we end up getting ourselves surrounded. We're working on strategy, see?"

Seeing her point about covering their backs, Neptune agreed, if only to make sure she didn't get herself into something dangerous. They headed up the fake stairs.

The traps on the fake set of stairs turned out to be nothing but a few grunts who were easily taken down by a few surprise attacks. "You wouldn't have been able to take us down if everyone was here," one of them snarled at her.

Frejya punched the floor next to his feet with her ear. He quietened down when he saw the floor crack and dent.

The Galactic building, for some reason, was filled with duct tape. Rolls after rolls of the silvery stuff. Under threats of metal claw and rock smash, the grunts she beat stayed still long enough for her to tape them into immobility and then shut them up.

On the fourth floor, she saw the formerly unconscious guy, huddling with a Clefairy and a Buneary. Behind them, a heavily made-up woman stood in a strange jumpsuit, arms crossed across her chest. She had purple hair, long but styled back into an oddly shaped ponytail. Her jumpsuit was missing its left leg, but the black and white fabric covered every other part of her body along with her boots.

She scowled in Dawn's direction, but didn't say anything. She only kept glaring at her.

"Is it a habit for Team Galactic to kidnap people and Pokémon?" Dawn asked, breaking the silence first as she jabbed a finger at the man.

The woman gave her a look of surprise before she burst out laughing, making Dawn flush a bit. She felt very much like a child, despite the fact that this woman's opinion of her shouldn't have mattered. "Did you come to free the Pokémon?" she asked in a falsely sweet voice before dropping it. "Of course you did. Well, little girl, guess what?"

"What?" Dawn asked, guessing and expecting the answer.

The purple-haired woman sneered. "It's not going to happen. Here – take a bite out of _this_ instead."

A Zubat, screeching, dove out of nowhere and towards her. Despite being blind, the Pokémon's screech allowed it to 'see' by hearing rather than sight, and it would have severely hurt her if it made it towards her.

It was a good thing Neptune was out. He shot a bubble beam directly at the incoming assailant before it could get her. The bubbles exploded upon contact, sending the bat veering from its original trajectory angle and flying back away from her neck and face area. "Thanks," Dawn gasped, surprised by the attempted assault.

"Hmph," the purple-haired woman sniffed. She reminded Dawn of Commander Mars from the Valley Windworks, despite their differences in appearances. Perhaps she was a commander of Team Galactic as well. "Giga drain."

"Bubble beam!"

The Zubat, glowing green, shot a bulb at the Prinplup. When the bulb hit, it latched onto Neptune's skin for a while as it sapped at his energy before breaking off into glowing green orbs that flew back to the Zubat. Neptune winced when the super-effective move hit, but he still hit the Zubat squarely in the face with focused bubbles that actually glowed with blue light. The impact of the bubbles hitting and popping the poison type threw it until it hit the ceiling. It chattered weakly as it fell.

"Useless," the maybe-commander muttered and recalled it. "Skuntank!"

Dawn quickly switched Neptune out, telling him to stand next to her while the woman was occupied. That last bubble beam had been powered up by torrent, Neptune's ability. While a power-up was much appreciated, it meant that his health was in critical condition. Far too much for her to be comfortable with, because she knew just how ruthless a commander's Pokémon could be.

And so did Sekhmet, who was sent out snarling a challenge. "Charge up and go!" Sekhmet, still fresher than the others, would be able to power up and then power through. Dawn needed Sekhmet to hit hard, and the boost on her special defense wouldn't hurt, either.

Jupiter's eyes were like flints. "Night slash."

The charging made Sekhmet's body glow with the electricity she was storing in her fur, making the poison type miss all her vitals. She hissed slightly, but it wasn't anything that would hurt her too much.

"Poison gas."

The Skuntank released a purple gaseous cloud that surrounded the Luxio. Sekhmet hissed in pain at the stinging gas cloud washing over her, but she still charged at the Skuntank. "Cover yourself with smokescreen!" the woman growled. "Kid, what do you think you're doing here?"

Dawn wanted to ignore her, but at the same time she wanted to answer. The question was what she could say in response to the question asked to her. Claim that she was just 'dropping by'? Give some self-righteous speech?

"I don't like what you people do," she settled for that instead. It was ridiculously childish – and seeing as how she had only just passed childhood, even more so – but it was the truth. Dawn didn't like how the grunts had threatened Lucas and Professor Rowan. She didn't like how they kept a little girl from her only parent and home. She didn't like how they disturbed such a peaceful, friendly place like Floaroma. She didn't like how they invaded an awesome city like Eterna and set a gloomy mood everywhere.

The woman laughed harshly. "Little heroine, aren't we?" Her laugh turned into a snarl when Frejya and Minerva, who had hidden themselves at the stairs, let out triumphant battle cries. Their sounds were mixed with human cries of surprise and pain.

"Trying for a sneak attack from the back?" Dawn asked with pursed lips as Sekhmet lunged. Mars hadn't done that.

"Just being thorough," she laughed, echoing Dawn's earlier thoughts as the Skuntank parried, though the electric blows gave it grief. "After all, we wouldn't want to have everything go wrong just when we're so close, would we?"

"Close to what?" Sekhmet hissed once more in pain from the poison, but batted off the dark and poison type. Her charged state gave her some more protection, and while that may have been negated by the poison, the additional boost to her spark was certainly paying off. Skuntank looked far worse than Sekhmet, and it wasn't even paralyzed yet.

"Research," the woman was far more composed when her Pokémon fell this time. She called it back and gave her a long, measured look. "I'm sure you know that Eterna happens to be a gold mine of information."

"History," Dawn felt the need to extend a bit.

"History. Myths, really, but you're right. They all have their roots in history. That was my job, to collect and organize them – and I'm done," the purple-haired woman nodded at her. "Just before you came, trainer, this man told me everything that I still needed to know."

Dawn looked at the man, still cringing and conscious. "What's your name?" she asked, sounding a lot calmer than she felt.

"I am Commander Jupiter of Team Galactic."

Dawn made a mental note of this as Jupiter began to turn away. "Oh, and trainer?" she added before fully turning. "You may think you're some sort of hero now, because you're strong, but just keep in mind. Team Galactic's going to gain strength. Power like you could never imagine. Our boss will harness the powers of the legends."

"And take over the world?" Dawn guessed, half-sarcastic. The other half took all of their crazy appearances and words into account and decided that it wasn't a half-bad deduction to make.

Jupiter gave her a smile that chilled her bones. "Perhaps," she said before an acrid smoke filled the entire room. The black smokescreen hid Jupiter's figure, and it was clouding towards her.

If they lost their sight while scattered around, they'd be easy pickings. "Group around me, all of you!" Dawn yelled as her eyes began to water. She pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth and pulled the Pokémon to hide their faces and breathe as low as they could, noses close to the ground. She shuffled to the wall where she had seen a window and struggled to open it while staying low.

By the time the window had been opened and the air was cleared, Jupiter was gone.

* * *

><p>Looker had a choice to make when a young trainer decided to break into the Galactic Headquarters. He tried to talk some sense into the reckless girl – just because she had managed to take down some members of Team Galactic the last time she ran in with them didn't mean that she would always end up winning – but the girl refused to leave.<p>

He shouldn't have showed her his face, but the other option was to simply shove her in holding somewhere, which had been unacceptable. He should have dragged her out of the building, kicking and screaming, but to do so would have brought down the attention of all the grunts, if not the Commander in the building herself. He would have been exposed, and all the work done to get him into Team Galactic would have been wasted. Team Galactic would be more cautious, and Interpol wouldn't be able to do enough to gather data and stop whatever they were up to in time.

Whatever Team Galactic was up to, Looker's gut feeling told him that it wasn't going to be good. From the way he heard the Commanders speak, derisively of humanity and the way the world was, he was guessing that the higher ups were radicals, or nihilist. Lower tier members, or grunts of the organization, were only told that by being a part of Team Galactic, they would automatically become part of a better world, which meant that, to some degree somewhere, Team Galactic was after control and power.

People had to be hurt for a group like Team Galactic to seize control and power, possibly killed. It wasn't realistic for a group like this to seize control and power, but they were certainly capable of taking a shot at the effort, and a shot was more than enough to cause plenty of damage.

They were also large enough, and certainly strong and rich enough to be a considerable threat. No plans had been made and announced as of yet, but if plans were to be made and carried out . . . .

One girl, weighed against the benefit of potentially hundreds saved.

Looker made a choice and prayed that the girl would be lucky once more.

The building was relatively quiet. Only a small squad of grunts had been sent to the Eterna base, in case of emergencies, and Commander Jupiter abhorred unnecessary chatter. Looker worked on the job given to him – filing papers and figuring out sums – until the alarm to evacuate was raised. He grabbed the files and followed the other grunts to the evacuation spots, where Pokémon capable of teleporting were waiting instructions.

"What's going on?" he asked aloud.

"Some kid broke in," another grunt in line answered, picking at duck tape on her clothes. "Rumour is, she beat Commander Jupiter in battle."

He made the obligatory sounds of interest and disbelief, but he mentally thanked the heavens. The gods had answered his prayers.

* * *

><p>The man who had been kidnapped turned out to be the owner of the famous bike shop, Rad Rickshaw, who was also a local celebrity for being a history buff. After filling out police statements, he bought her a crepe at a stand and gave her one of the latest models in his shop. "<em>Least<em> I could do," he said when she protested out of courtesy. She didn't really put much heart behind her protests because heck, this was awesome. "You saved me and Rodney from them Galactic punks. Way I see it, _I_ owe _you_."

Rodney the Clefairy nodded in agreement. Dawn didn't argue further.

The police officers had initially laughed when she had claimed to be the one to take down a Team Galactic Commander, but at the testimony of Rad had lost their humour quickly. They didn't seem to know at all about the Interpol agent, so Dawn assumed that Looker was trying to not draw attention to himself.

She asked after him, since he'd disappeared again, but when no one knew gave up and then stocked up on supplies before picking up her Pokémon from the center. "I'm proud of you," she told them. "And . . . thank you."

They smiled at her.

Lyra, on the other hand, was not so proud of her. When Dawn let it slip that she had rescued a man from a Galactic Commander and gotten a free bike in exchange, the Johtoan girl had chewed her out for being so reckless and demanded a video chat. There, face to face, a livid Lyra had demanded to know just why Dawn had thrown herself into a dangerous situation all by herself.

"You did that too, remember?" Dawn asked, trying to stay calm and not get caught up in the argument. She didn't want to fight with Lyra. Hopefully reminding the other girl about the time she had stumbled onto a Team Rocket operation led by an admin would make her rethink her – in Dawn's opinion – rather hypocritical anger.

_"I had friends with me!"_ Lyra sputtered. "_And_ _practically the whole town of Azalea!"_

"I had my Pokémon," Dawn protested. "Besides, their commanders kind of suck. I battled one already before and-"

"What?!"

For someone who had acted against the criminal organization in their region, Lyra seemed quite paranoid about her doing the same in Sinnoh. After promising to never recklessly go after Team Galactic and commanders – even with friends backing her up – they went back to their usual talk about their Pokémon and what was going on around them. This time, they discussed strategies much more in-depth than they ever had, critiquing styles and choices before making suggestions to remedy problems. She was forgiven.

A few days of rest in Eterna later, it was time to get on the road again if they wanted to cover as much ground as possible before winter came. Hypothermia and cold-related accidents were one of the highest causes of trainer injuries and death in the Sinnoh region, and Dawn wanted to be snugly buried in her home when winter came. They had to get moving again to make as much progress before the famous Sinnoh winters came down upon them.

Looking at the map, they all decided that their next destination should be Hearthome. There were two ways from Eterna to Hearthome. One was through Route 211 and Mt. Coronet, heading around Celestic and Solaceon. The other was to bike down the cycling road built above Route 206's regional park, heading back to Oreburgh and crossing a different section of Mt. Coronet to head to Hearthome.

"We totally got the bike for a reason," she said with a grin. "This was destiny!"

Dawn began to believe her destiny explanation more when she ran into one of the professor's aides – one Michael Yew, aka Lucas's father – at the entrance to the cycling road. "It's very nice to meet you at last," he said, shaking her hand warmly. "The professor speaks very highly of you."

"Thank you," she ducked her head a bit.

"This is quite the coincidence," he said. "The professor actually wanted me to pass this along to you."

Mr. Yew presented her with what looked like a headgear made out of a mass of wires and metals. "Umm . . . ."

He laughed at her expression. "It's an experience share. When a Pokémon wears it, it can gain experience from battles by proxy."

She looked at it again, this time with more enthusiasm. "Cool!"

"The professor wanted you to have it, since you're an excellent trainer. He hopes that you'll continue your hard work on the Pokédex."

Dawn shrugged. "I just battle and encounter Pokémon. I'm not very good at catching Pokémon – but Lucas is!" she grinned. "I bet you're really proud of your son!"

He smiled at her, but she noticed that his expression was a bit more wooden than before. "I am . . . proud of Lucas," he agreed. "Well then, Dawn, it's been very nice meeting you. I wish you good luck on your journey."

She waved, and then stuck her new exp share into her bag's digital storage before getting on her bike.

The cool thing about Route 206's cycling road was that it was an observatory of a sort, built high above a long stretch of land named Grotte National Park. The road was built with tall fences hard to climb in order to prevent people from littering or attempting suicide, and was sturdy enough to host multiple battles on top of it at once.

Most of the bikers preferred quick Pokémon, like Ponyta, Staravia and Pikachu. Quick, they were for sure, but they didn't stand a chance against Neptune, who swept them all easily with his bubble beam. Once the other trainers on bikes saw how strong they were, they began to challenge her. It took much longer than the average estimated time for them to reach Oreburgh, by which time night was falling. Luckily, the Pokémon Center had a few empty rooms.

"Calling it a night," she grunted. No one objected, and she fell asleep as soon as she had showered and pulled on her pajamas.

Coincidentally, she was in the room she had been in when she had first come into the city to challenge Roark. Only Neptune realized this, but even he was too tired to care enough to point it out.

* * *

><p>AN: Question - which novelization in this universe would people most be interested in reading? EmeraldORAS, Leaf Green, or Heart Gold? I'd prefer to get at least one of these out of the way before starting on the later ones like Black, Black 2 and Y.


	11. Feel So Cool

A.S.107

August 4th

_Contests aren't my thing. _

* * *

><p>At the advice of his master, Lucas went to explore Wayward Cave, a part of Grotte Park after picking up his newly revived Pokémon from the fossil lab in Oreburgh. He planned on camping in the area for at least three days, so he packed his bag with enough supplies to last him and his Pokémon for five days. This wasn't his first time camping outside for a few days, but it was his first time doing it by himself without his dad or other aides of the professor accompanying him.<p>

Well, he had his Pokémon with him, so it wasn't exactly _alone_, he supposed. It was his first time planning out a camping trip by himself.

Brandon, his Bibarel, pushed a few boulders out of the way so that the paths through the twisting dark caves were a bit clearer. "How do these things even get here?" he wondered out loud. One would think, with people coming and going through the cave, that the rocks wouldn't be placed in such awkward places.

Arthur shrugged. The Kadabra was busy lighting up the pitch black of Wayward Cave with flash so that Lucas could actually enjoy looking around the cave without crashing into places.

The light drove away some Pokémon, but it also attracted the attention of others. They weren't Pokémon he hadn't seen before, but he made sure to keep track of just what species were indigenous to Wayward Cave. He was personally hoping to see a Gible, since he'd heard that the rare ground and dragon types lived in deeper parts of Wayward Cave, hoarding their treasures and digging tunnels so they could travel through the ground.

When he turned the next corner, he found himself looking down a tunnel where light was coming from the end. It didn't look like an opening – rather, it looked like someone else was using flash from the other side. "Hello?" he called down.

"Hello," he received in reply. Curious, Lucas and his Pokémon moved ahead to see just who else was in Wayward Cave.

His fellow cave-camper was a girl around his age with pink hair. Like him, she had a Kadabra using flash to light up her surroundings.

"Hi," the girl said to him cheerfully. "I'm Mira!"

"Lucas," he said in return, shaking the offered hand. "Are you camping out here?"

"Yup!" she gestured to her sleeping bag and portable stove. "This place has the coolest sights and Pokémon around Sinnoh! I come out here all the time and it never gets boring."

"Really?" Lucas said, interest peaked. "Then do you know where the Gible live?"

While the trainers talked, the two Kadabra began communicating on their own. "Isn't that sweet?" muttered the girl's Kadabra, sounding like he thought the exact opposite.

"Depends on what you define sweet as," Arthur replied.

The other Kadabra paused before introducing himself. "Name's Otto," he said.

"Arthur," he replied.

Lucas ended up camping with the girl, who introduced herself as Mira Rowan. Once he learned her name, he remembered that Professor Rowan had a younger brother, who in turn had a family of his own. When he inquired about it, she admitted that Professor Rowan was her great-uncle. Like Dawn and Barry, she was a competitive trainer. She claimed to not specialize in types but in stats – specifically special attacks.

"Otto was my starter," she said, patting her Kadabra's arm fondly. The psychic type paused in his teaching the other Kadabra some mind tricks to smile down at his trainer before returning to his self-imposed role of mentor to the younger one. "We're training so we can get to be a stat trainer at the Battle Tower."

"I hope you make it," Lucas said. To be a trainer at the Battle Tower – a hired, full-time battler, not just a member of the Frontier that liked to use the Tower's services a lot – was quite the big deal. The battlers, mostly specializing in a specific stat such as speed or defense, had to have plenty of experience and a good track record in competitive battling. Not only that, but they had to prove that they were also active in other aspects of life, and show their worth in battle against the Battle Tower Tycoon himself, Palmer Keizer.

It was a very ambitious goal. But then again, he wanted to be regional professor of Sinnoh one day, despite the fact that the title of regional professor almost always went to the prestigious families that had held the position of regional professor and other high titles for generations. In Kanto, it was Oak, in Unova, it was Juniper. In Sinnoh, it was Rowan. If he looked at it the right way, Mira was more likely to accomplish her goal than he was.

To get his mind off depressing matters, he talked about other things to her, and she responded enthusiastically until both of them were yawning and more than willing to go to bed to get some shuteye. Despite the good materials his sleeping bag was made out of, he could still feel the hard ground beneath him and already foresee the back problems this would cause him. He'd probably ache all day tomorrow.

Still, he was having a lot of fun. The next morning they were sharing breakfast and stories, becoming fast friends.

* * *

><p>After a hearty breakfast, Dawn took her Pokémon and headed out to the park she had cycled over the previous day. There weren't exactly any new Pokémon in the park, much to her disappointment, but a few trainers had been willing to battle – as long it was done very, very carefully in order to not destroy or harm the environment around them. While Neptune and Sekhmet were as eager as usual, she noticed Minerva drawing back, being more and more reluctant to battle. Often, she let Frejya or the others volunteer to take her turn.<p>

Not every Pokémon liked to keep battling competitively. Many tired of battling constantly, and to push them to continue would make them miserable. She'd have to find an alternative for Minerva. The Noctowl didn't seem interested in being released, but at the same time it wasn't fair for her to be kept in the box forever.

Dawn made note of that and pushed it to the back of her mind. She could deal with that later and have a talk with her in private – right now, she had a few battles to finish and a park to look through briefly.

An hour or so after noon, a few hours into her exploring the park, she was in the middle of battling a hiker when he yelped and turned away from the battle, excited. His Geodude, distracted by his trainer's distracted state, was hit directly in the face by a bubble beam and promptly knocked out. "We win!" Dawn declared.

"Yeah, yeah!" the hiker threw money at her. "C'mon, George – George? Damn," he cursed when he realized that his only Pokémon was unconscious.

"What's wrong?"

He did a little dance of impatient excitement, hopping back and forth between his feet. "Look!" he pointed to a patch of grass.

At first she didn't see it, but then something metallic glinted under the ray of sunshine and Dawn gawked. "Is that a-"

"A prehistoric Pokémon!" the hiker, who was beginning to remind her more of a ruin maniac, threw his head back and howled. "I discovered a surviving branch of a supposedly-extinct species!"

Dawn frowned when she remembered that they were near Oreburgh, where the Sinnohan Fossil Resurrection Lab was. "Er," she began, not really wanting to rain on someone's parade but feeling like she had to pop his bubble.

"Sherlock!"

The tan creature with the black disc of polished metal for its head turned towards the sound. Dawn turned to see Lucas with a pink-haired girl next to him. Dawn thought she recognized the girl from a tournament video somewhere, but she couldn't remember her name. She decided to stick with greeting Lucas and waved. He returned it with a grin. Cupid, from his perch on Lucas's shoulder, cheerfully waved as well. It looked like they were getting along well.

"Hey, I was worried about you," the boy told the Pokémon when he and his group came closer. The Shieldon more or less ignored him and settled for staring vacantly at the sky.

The hiker, learning that he had only run upon a Pokémon revived from a fossil with the new technology, went away dejected. "So Sherlock's the fossil you found from the underground, huh?" she asked, leaning down to pet him. Steel-type. She liked him very much already.

"Yeah," Lucas stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and smiled, looking a lot more like a boy around his age. More than he usually did, anyways. "The Underground's literally a treasure trove. You should go there sometime. I think you'd like it – you can find treasures, or build a secret base and set traps around."

Dawn considered it. "Sounds pretty fun. Do I have to pay or anything?"

"That depends," and Lucas went on a huge, lengthy speech about the Underground Man and how trainers could benefit from spending more time experiencing mining and exploring the tunnels below Sinnoh. The pink-haired girl interrupted once, thanking Lucas for helping her out of the cave before leaving. Lucas called her 'Mira', and that was when Dawn finally remembered the name of the prodigy trainer who had been ranking high in recent tournaments. Stupid of her to forget, since she was related to Professor Rowan, but still. It looked like Lucas knew a lot of Rowans.

"I'll check it out one day," Dawn promised Lucas when the topic finally was put to rest. Since noon had already past, they both agreed to head back to Oreburgh for a late lunch. "By the way, I met your dad in Eterna the other day."

Lucas looked surprised, but not in the good, happy way she would have been if her dad had been alive and someone had told her they had seen him around. "My dad?"

"Yeah," she eyed him warily. That wasn't how she had expected him to react to her news. "He gave me an exp share from Professor Rowan and told me to keep up . . . to work hard."

"Oh."

So Lucas hadn't known that his father had been in Eterna. Now Dawn felt bad. "He also said that he's proud of you."

"Oh."

It didn't seem to help. Maybe Lucas knew that it had been a slight stretch of the truth on her part. Now she felt really bad. Awkward silence sat between them until they were in the diner, buying burgers, fries and shakes. Mostly planning from her experience with Barry, Dawn threw a fry at Lucas, hitting him squarely on his nose. He stared at her like she was crazy.

"Ten points for me," she said like she made complete sense. It didn't to her, but he didn't need to know that.

He didn't start throwing food back at her, but he did smile and relax, making the sacrifice of the fry worth it. They gave up eating their fries entirely when the revived Sherlock was found to love fried potato strips. "Hey," he said when their meal was over.

She finished the last of her desert, a chocolate cake. On a journey by herself, she should have watched her diet a little more, but a little indulgence was okay every now and then. "Yeah?" she said after swallowing.

Lucas held out his hands above the table towards her, both clenched into light fists. "Choose a hand."

"Umm," Dawn considered the choices presented. "Right?"

"Good choice."

He gave her a triangular device. "That's the Vs. Seeker," he said. "It keeps track of your battles and uploads your records onto your account so that people looking at your trainer profile can properly access your skills and battle experience."

There was some debate as to just what counted as official battle wins. In status quo, the official records of trainers were from battles that had official referees, like gym challenges or tournaments. There was talk to counting challenges made 'on the road', where trainers challenged other trainers passing by into a battle, and the trainer profile did keep track of those as well when data was available.

It didn't look like the system would change its rules any time soon – most of the 'street battle' records were still reliant on a person's claims, and therefore not as accurate or trustworthy. Vs. Seekers were devices made to keep track of a person's street battles so that the records uploaded to one's trainer profile had some validity behind them. When the Vs. Seeker was the one making the updates, there was a mark next to the records to prove that the statistics added were legitimate, and therefore a more accurate reflection of the trainer's skills.

Dawn didn't upload any of her street battle wins onto her profile because of the reason that it wasn't as trustworthy or easy to validate, but with the Vs. Seeker it was an entirely different story. "Thanks," she said, taking the device. She would have to synchronize it to her profile later, but it would help. Despite their lack of validation in most parts, the numbers of victories in street battles still made a resume of her career as a trainer, and with the Vs. Seeker she'd have no problems at all.

Lucas, though, wasn't done giving apparently. He unfurled the fingers of his left hand. "And here."

The other gift was a dowsing machine app for her watch. "To get you into finding treasures," he said as an explanation before she could start talking him into taking it back. One random, out-of-the-blues gift was nice, two seemed a little over the board. "That way, you'll go to the Underground because you'll be addicted to finding treasures."

"What about you?"

"I already have one," he showed her his watch. "Take them; I got them free to promote them."

Dawn would have argued, but realized that he wasn't going to let her return the gifts. She accepted them with thanks, and after some thought gave him a handful of great balls. "Least I can do," she said.

He took them, and then got up from his seat. "Anyways, see you?"

She waved and he left, heading back to Eterna to finish up his short apprenticeship with the Underground Man.

* * *

><p>Lucas was right, dowsing was really fun, and a bit addicting. She wasted a lot of time the day he gave her trying it out and found quite a lot of items that way because it brought out the bargain seeker inside of her. It was amazing what things went missed.<p>

The next day, with her watch set firmly to dowsing mode, they packed up and headed to Mt. Coronet's tunnel. It was supposed to be a straight path, and impossible to get lost in.

Just in case, Dawn stocked up on escape ropes.

Halfway in, standing next to a sign with information about Mt. Coronet, she realized that it really _was_ impossible to get lost in the cavern. Dark, it certainly was, and rather foreboding in a heavy, dramatic way, but she could see the light from the other end in the far distance, as well as some lanterns placed in order to light the way to the other side. The path leading to said light on the other end was also pretty distinct and clear, easy for her to go through. "Looks like I was worried for nothing," she told Neptune, who was out of his ball to keep her safe from wild Pokémon like Geodude or Zubat.

He nodded in agreement before he spun around abruptly after hearing a noise, the tips of his flippers lit up in a metal claw.

The foe he was aiming them at – the blue-haired guy from Eterna and Lake Verity – only raised an eyebrow.

Dawn squashed the urge to point at him and yell 'you'. Instead, she only tugged at Neptune. She was definitely grateful for his protectiveness, but the last thing she wanted was for him to be 'put down' for being violent. "Sorry," she apologized. "It's just that you scared us."

He nodded at her before craning his head slightly to read the sign. "Ah," he sighed.

She glanced at it. Myths surrounding the mountain – the very basic, most politically correct version of them to avoid offending anyone. "Are you interested in myths?"

"You could say that," he looked at her like she was something that had just been brought to his interest. Not someone. Some_thing_. "Some say that Mt. Coronet was where the Sinnoh region began."

"I know that theory," she said, remembering stories told to her years ago. "It's the one where Dialga and Palkia were supposed to have made the world from Spear Pillar, and they created the mountain to stand upon as they used their powers."

It was the most popular one, for sure – at least in Sinnoh. Religious cults in other regions weren't as powerful, large or politically involved as the major ones in Sinnoh, but they did butt heads over their beliefs occasionally.

"Indeed," he agreed.

"Must have been quite the view," she said, examining a painting of the world being 'created' by Dialga's roar and Palkia's slashes. "The world, being created right there and then."

"In a newly created world . . . A world where only time flowed and space expanded . . . There should have been no strife. But what became of the world?"

Dawn looked back at him, but he had an almost dreamy expression on his face. It wasn't a question she was supposed to answer. "Because the human spirit is weak and incomplete," he continued, dreamy face hardening slowly, "strife has spread . . . This world is being ruined by it . . . I find this state of affairs deplorable . . ."

"Uhh," she didn't know what to say to that. He sounded like one of the cynics or radical fanatics that liked to come to Lake Verity to rant to Mespirit about the ugliness they saw in the world. They were always monitored carefully and dealt with accordingly if they were found dangerous, but they were never particularly pleasant to be around. All the talk about there being no hope for improvement always made her feel heavy in the pits of her stomach.

He looked down at her. She kind of froze, then, feeling a bit trapped by his blank eyes. Eyes that looked like they'd seen everything in this world and could do anything without even showing a glimpse of what was going on inside.

It was uncomfortable, and creepy. She felt like she was being judged for her worthiness, and while the opinions of others didn't impact her very much, this one felt almost threatening.

"Dawn? Is that you?"

Both of them turned around to see someone in the distance. Even in the relatively dark cave, the pale blond hair and bright orange clothes were visible. Barry waved, and then began running towards her.

She wanted to throw her arms around him and hug him as tightly as she could because seriously, bless him and his ability to just break any tense situation. Dawn hadn't been sure whether she was supposed to have heard his rather disturbing talk or not, but the man looked like he could kill witnesses without losing any sleep over the matter. "Even you couldn't have gotten lost here," he said, exasperated when he stopped next to them. "Are you bothering more people?"

"_No_!" she protested indignantly. She was probably overreacting, but figured that acting casual and unafraid like a child would give her a better chance of being ignored by the man.

It worked. The blue-haired man nodded at her, apparently losing interest, and slipped away. When he was out of the cavern, Dawn let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Barry asked, perceptive for once.

She told him. "Okay, that's kind of creepy," he admitted. "But I'm sure he's just one of those emo people."

"Emo people wear black," Dawn thought for a bit. "Don't they?"

Barry shrugged, not really caring enough to keep his short attention span on it. "Anyways, what took you so long?" he tapped her head impatiently. "Did you get your second badge?"

Dawn grinned and showed off her latest conquest. "Ha ha!" Barry clapped his hands. "That's what I'm talking about! That's my rival!"

"What about you?" Dawn asked. "How many badges do you have?"

"Two," Barry said, "but it'll be three soon. I'm challenging Fantina in Hearthome soon, and I'm going to win."

"Chh-ck!"

Both of them looked up to see a larger-than-average Zubat flitting by. The blind poison type paused around them, hovering and circling, and let out a few more sounds.

Dawn thought for three seconds before she let Minerva out. The Noctowl glanced around the environment she was in – a cave – but her eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly. "Just weaken the Zubat," Dawn said as the Noctowl took into the air, making the necessary turns to not allow the Zubat to lead her to circle around too much in confusion. "Don't faint it."

Obligingly, Minerva held back her attacks, making sure it wasn't too much so as to knock out the foe. The Zubat squealed in pain, but didn't flee. Dawn's guess – that the Zubat was interested in getting a trainer – had been right.

When the Zubat looked worn enough, she dug out a Poké ball from her bag's digital item storage section and threw it. The ball absorbed the Zubat after disintegrating it, and fell to the ground. Once it let out a ding of confirmation, Dawn went to pick it up.

She turned to Minerva. "Thank you," she said softly, and the Noctowl hooted just as softly before Dawn returned her. Then, Dawn checked the status of the Pokémon on the filled Poké ball before she released the newly-caught Zubat, who skittered nervously. "Hi," she said a bit more cheerfully than she would have.

The Zubat lunged towards the sound of her voice. Dawn flinched and Barry yelped, but the Zubat only tangled it – _her_self up in Dawn's hair. "Chit-chit-chit," she said.

Dawn sighed in relief. For a moment she thought that she had misinterpreted the Zubat's wishes. "Your name's Themis," she told the Zubat, and didn't get a sound of disapproval. "I'm Dawn, and I'm going to be your trainer from today. Are you alright with that?"

The Zubat snuggled into her hair. "Okay," she said, and reached up to carefully disentangle the poison type. "No nesting in my hair. You could choke or end up hurting me as well, and neither of us wants that, yes?"

Themis left her hair, and jumped off of Dawn's hand so she could hover in the air again. "Shhck," she said. Dawn got the feeling that the Zubat didn't actually have a thing for nesting in long hair – she had just done that to startle Dawn with the sudden rush.

"Ha," she said dryly. "Well, return for now. You'll meet the rest of the team later on."

After she returned her latest catch, she looked to Barry, who had an odd look on his face. "What?" she asked defensively.

"Nothing," he said. "It's just . . . why catch one now? You've seen them before, haven't you? You could have caught one way before. And you already have Minerva as your flying type. Isn't two a little much?"

"Well, you know, this is Mt. Coronet," she said with her arms extended towards the gray stone of the cavern's ceilings. "Where myths and legends were born! Themis will be one too one day, you'll see."

Barry looked at her a little skeptically. "So . . . she's a souvenir?"

Dawn dropped her arms to whack him in his shoulder. "No."

Because her reasons for catching Themis wasn't as noble. If Minerva was going to quit battling, she needed a different flying type on her team. Noctowl were nice birds, lots of stamina and a few psychic powers lying dormant within them – despite not being psychic in type – but she didn't want to catch another one if Minerva was going to quit. It almost felt like she was replacing Minerva but in a wrong sense – because the spot left behind the bird would have to be replaced, just not necessarily by another Noctowl. If she caught another Noctowl, she'd constantly compare the two, and that wasn't fair to either of them.

Themis had dropped by at the perfect time. The Zubat family, especially Zubat, were amazingly common in a large number of regions, so many trainers overlooked their usefulness. They were associated with criminals, gangs and generally cheap labour because it was easy to find and catch them.

But people often forgot that the ninjas of Fuchsia – one of the former Kanto Empire's deadliest forces – had been the first in history to use the Zubat family. The ninja clan had used Zubat and its evolutions for everything from blitz attacks to assassinations. Even now, the leader of the ninjas in Fuchsia and the poison type Elite Four of the Indigo League, Koga Fuchsia, had a Crobat as his signature Pokémon.

The Zubat family were known to be fast and agile, growing even more so as they evolved. They weren't as easily tricked because of their superior sense of hearing – natural blindness being a part of life often led to excellent honing of other senses – and they were great at throwing statuses onto opponents before dancing out of danger's range.

Themis wasn't Minerva. She would replace the role of the flier, _replace_ Minerva, but by doing so would let Minerva be free to do what she wanted to do, which was obviously not battling.

. . . And maybe she was a souvenir of Mt. Coronet as well. Dawn would never tell, though.

They stepped out into the brightly lit Route 208. "I should book a room in the center first," she told Barry. "It's crowded there, right?"

"Like you wouldn't believe!"

For old time's sakes, they agreed to race there. She returned all of her Pokémon and began to run in the general direction. Her plan was to let Barry lead by just a bit and then overtake him when the destination was clear. For all of his hyper activity, Barry still had a better sense of direction than she did.

Laughing, they turned a corner and darted down the stairs, getting yelled at by a hiker for being careless. They got across the grass without incident as they were apparently too fast for any Pokémon to attack, though they had to stop at the gate between the route and the city for a check-in. They started to run again once they were finished. Barry had turned to laugh at her 'slowness' when his eyes widened in horror and he tripped.

It was all too quick, and most of her memories were from retrospect. She ended up tripping over him and falling on something soft and squishy.

Soft and squishy and very much alive, judging from the frantic squirming going on under her stomach.

When Dawn got up, she thought that Frejya had managed to escape her ball, but it soon became clear to her that the Buneary in front of her didn't belong to her. It was someone else's. "Oops."

"Yeah," Barry groaned. Dawn had accidently clipped his head with her boots when she had gone flying.

The owner came running shortly after. "Thank Cresselia," she sighed as she scooped the dazed Buneary up in her arms. She was a pretty woman, with curled brown hair and carefully applied makeup. Despite her civilian outfit, she was clearly someone used to dressing up in style.

She was actually familiar to Dawn. Her name was Kiera, and she had come over to Twinleaf to visit Johanna a few times when Dawn had been eight. She was also a pretty big name in the coordinating world, although not as big as her mom's.

Apparently she didn't recognize Dawn, because she simply kept talking without showing recognition. "I don't know what would have happened if you two hadn't been here."

Dawn shot Barry a look to make sure he didn't say anything about the collision. He got the message and didn't run his tongue carelessly.

"Return, Lola," she sighed and recalled her Buneary. "Thank you two so much," she said once her arms were empty. "I'm Kiera. I have to go back, but if you'll drop by the Contest Hall around, say, three o'clock, I'd be more than happy to properly reward you!"

Apparently in a hurry, Kiera left quickly.

When Barry heard the word 'contest' he decided to not go. "Not really interested."

But Dawn was. Somewhat. And it couldn't hurt to get some compensation, right?

After managing to book a room and dropping off her general luggage at one of the Pokémon Centers in Hearthome City – the Center nearest to Route 208, as it was – the two of them grabbed a few snacks and effectively goofed away some of their time before heading towards the hall. Hearthome City was one of the largest cities in the Sinnoh region, but it wasn't loud or overly crowded in the way Jubilife's streets could be. The sections of the city where merchants with services and goods related to Pokémon Contests were familiar to her, as she'd tagged along with her mother for contests in the area a good number of times over the years. Even she could find her way to the hall with relative ease.

Once they were in front of the hall, Barry decided to leave. "See ya later," he waved, and dashed away from the hall.

It looked like a contest had just finished up. There were cleaners sweeping up confetti, coordinators packing up their props and accessories, the last of the spectators emptying out of the viewing area through the double doors.

Dawn saw Kiera right away. The brown-haired woman stood near the reception area, talking to two other women.

Dawn did a double take on one of the other woman. "Mom!"

Johanna looked up from her conversation to be hit by a tackle-hug by her daughter. If Dawn hadn't been so short, her mother would have been bowled off her feet.

Kiera gasped. "Dawn? I can't believe I didn't recognize you! Oh Cresselia, you've grown so _much_!"

By grown, Dawn assumed she meant 'matured' and not 'taller', because she really wasn't that tall. Still, she let Kiera sweep her into a hug.

"This is a coincidence," Kiera said after letting Dawn go. "Are you in Hearthome for contests? Is that why you're here, Johanna?"

Johanna and Dawn exchanged a look. Her mom's friends always wondered why Dawn wouldn't follow her mother's footsteps into the world of Pokémon coordinating. "We haven't spoken much about contests," Johanna said, giving their usual bland but safe and true answer. Johanna never imposed onto Dawn what she should do with her future. She did impose a _few_ rules, like not being a mass-murderer or a circus performer or a map maker, but other than that she respected Dawn's choices.

"I've tried some when I was little," Dawn added as Kiera tried to talk her into doing contests. A lot of her mom's friends, former students and acquaintances in the contest world thought that Dawn's problem was her being shy and insecure about living up to the standards set by her mother's image. They always tried to reassure her that she was her own person, that she would be wonderful on her own, that she would absolutely love coordinating.

Dawn appreciated their efforts, really – they were all nice people trying to help a young person out – but really. She just preferred training. Even as a rookie trainer not even finished her first year of training she liked battling more than coordinating. There was something in battling that was liberating, clenching and powerful all at the same time that contests with their appeals and dancing and glittering lights just didn't give her. "The rookie ones, with rental Pokémon. But, you know, I prefer training."

She'd forgotten just how stubborn her mom's former protégée had been, and just how passionate she was about coordinating. "Well, we can't have that now, can we?" Kiera tossed her hair back. "But oh, wait, I'm forgetting about you," she added to the third woman with a sheepish grin.

The third woman was dressed simply, in sweats and a training jacket, with her purple hair pulled back into a messy bun held by a plain plastic clip. She didn't wear makeup, or jewelry or anything particularly eye-catching.

But looks and outer appearances could be deceiving. Her mom looked like any other moms normally, but when she was all dressed up, she looked years younger than she was, and easily caught everyone's eye. "This is Fantina, top coordinator and Gym Leader of Hearthome," Kiera said.

Fantina, nearly unrecognizable from her usual flashy public pictures, smiled. "Johanna's daughter?" she said, with a hint of a Kalosian accent. "But you prefer training. Interesting. Are you in the city to try for my badge?"

Dawn ducked her head, reverting to the polite autopilot she defaulted to around her mom's friends or guests. "Yes ma'am," she said respectfully.

Kiera interrupted. "But before you go for that badge, you've got to enter a Super Contest in Hearthome – you're _Johanna _Steele's _daughter_! Which Pokémon do you want to enter?"

Dawn found herself dragged to the registration desk and handing over her trainer card and signing up for a contest and watching Kiera rapidly jot down all the necessary information on a register form. "I guess . . . Neptune?" she guessed. Frejya was still a bit cold, Minerva wasn't much for theatrics, Sekhmet would probably try to bite her and Themis had just been caught. Neptune was the only one she could rely on for this challenge in life.

Kiera handed over the reward when she remembered – glitter powder accessory – and ran off, claiming she had an appointment with a beauty stylist. Fantina's phone rang, and after talking briefly with whoever was on the line, the gym leader excused herself. She did, however, promise to stay in the city until Dawn came for her badge, which took a burden off of Dawn's shoulders. The ghost type specialist was notorious for not being in her gym. With that promise holding the gym leader in town, Dawn could get more time to practice and train than she'd initially anticipated getting.

It was just Dawn and her mother now. Dawn sighed, a little tired from the sudden celebrity rush after the two had left.

Then, the full implications of just what had happened sank in.

"Help," she moaned to her mother, who smiled at her daughter's chagrin.

* * *

><p>There were three days before the next Normal Rank Contests. Kiera had signed her up for a Cool Contest.<p>

Her mom said that it was plenty of time to practice, and for the purposes of saving cost and room, helped move Dawn's things from the room at the center to the hotel she was staying at so that other trainers would be able to get lodging. Barry wished her luck, but told her that he'd be busy at the gym challenging Fantina during the contest. Dawn cursed the coinciding times.

"Will three days be enough?" she said dubiously. "And where would we practice?"

"Of course it's enough," Johanna replied matter-of-factly. "I hate to sound snobby, but it _is_ only a Normal Rank Contest, meant for beginners. And actually, the Hearthome Hall holds practice sessions for all three categories of the contest."

After seeing Neptune shoot bubble beams and flash his metal claw, her mom agreed that what they needed to work on was the visual and dance presentations.

Dawn dressed him up in the accessories her mom had. Over the years, as a famous coordinator, her mother had collected and received many different accessories for contests, enough to fill one or two _dressing_ rooms. She had one of her kits on her, and now she let Dawn borrow it.

Neptune, dressed in fluff and feathers, grumbled.

Johanna tipped her head to the side to examine her daughter's starter in a new light and angle. How did one say something nicely, but give good constructive criticism?

She couldn't think of one. All she could be, in the position of a teacher, was to be bluntly honest. Her daughter would understand. If she didn't, then she had obviously raised her wrong. "Neptune's lacking sheen," she said frankly. "If he doesn't get any, he won't win."

Dawn gave her a long look, partially wondering if she should have paid more attention to her mom's coordinating during her childhood years. "But we can fix that?"

Johanna inclined her head. "After the dance practice."

The dance rehearsal was a little better. Since sheen wasn't relied on so much in this category, they could focus on Neptune's techniques. "He's pretty light on his feet," Johanna commented when he pulled off a move perfectly after the choreographer had demonstrated it once.

"Yeah Neptune!" Dawn cheered and was glared at for being loud. Said glares disappeared when people saw just who she was next to, and Dawn wasn't sure whether to be glad or sad about it.

When the music was switched off, they dropped by a local farmer's market near the suburban part of the city to purchase berries before rushing to a poffin store. Hearthome, being both a largely populated city and the host to the most important contests held in Sinnoh, had an abundance of poffin bakeries around. Johanna, however, was very specific with the poffins she fed her Pokémon. What the berries used was, how fresh the batter happened to be, who cooked it and so on.

Her favourite was a store that provided the best batter she had seen. Customers were given batter and expected to cook their own poffins. They were also to bring their own berries, the one drawback to what could have been the perfect store. Johanna had often consoled herself over the length of her career using the store's services, telling herself that it guaranteed the freshness of the berries in her poffin even if it meant that she had to make the effort of bringing her own berries.

Now she was bringing her daughter here, explaining her reasons for choosing the place. They bought a poffin case and paid for the hour. "We get unlimited batter," she explained, filling the pot. Once the batter had reached the line marked within the pot, she placed an oran berry within. "Watch."

Cooking a poffin was an art in its own. It required precise control in the beginning and a watchful eye for the subtle timings that could be missed. A single second could make or break the quality of the poffin.

Dawn let out an impressed ooh when Johanna flipped the finished poffin onto a cooling rack. "Let's try it," her mom said, breaking open the doughy bread with a fork. Steam rose from the coloured insides. "The reason why I like this shop is because the batter's edible by humans as well as Pokémon."

Dawn popped a piece of it into her mouth. "It's actually really good," she said. Bready, but moist enough to not choke on the texture, with a soft, warm oran flavour throughout. "It reminds me of your muffins."

"Where do you think the recipe comes from?" Johanna teased. Dawn choked on the bit of bread laughing.

By the end of the hour, Johanna had demonstrated seven more poffins and Dawn had made fifteen of good quality. They were both a bit stuffed on the 'failures', so opted to skip out on dinner.

Neptune, under envious gazes, polished off six poffins on his own before generously handing out some to the others.

"Tomorrow," her mom told her as they walked back to the hotel. "We work on your appeals again."

* * *

><p>The next two days were spent under intense preparations of a kind neither Dawn nor Neptune were used to. Now that Neptune had a good sheen – Dawn finally saw the difference once it was her own Pokémon that had gone through the change – their greatest challenge was the dance competition. Neptune had nailed those moves, but the choreographed part was only one-fourth of the total points from the dance section. The other three-fourth required being able to be a good back-up dancer to the other three Pokémon participating as well. It required on-the-spot thinking and good reflexes.<p>

"Will Jackie be teaching us?" Dawn asked. Jackie was one of her mom's most famous Pokémon because of her dancing skills. She switched from style to style in different contests, and danced so fluidly that Dawn could count on the fingers of one hand when another Pokémon had gotten higher scores than Jackie in the dance section of a contest she entered in.

"No – Jackie's at home working on her liquid dancing. She kicked me out of the house so she could practice in secret. I think she wants to surprise me," Johanna added dryly. Jackie was a bit of a diva sometimes, and almost always when it involved choreographing her moves. "But Neptune will be fine," her mom said just as he completed the routine perfectly for the third time in a row. The Prinplup, too tired to brag at the praise, drank the water Dawn brought him. "You know you won't be dancing _with_ him during the actual contest, right Dawn?"

Dawn was also tired. Neptune had initially been reluctant to perform on his own. Her promising to practice with him, no matter how 'embarrassing' it was, had been the only reason why he was going through with this as well as he was right now. So far it was more tiring than embarrassing, because other people practicing had thought it was a good idea and joined in as well. "I know," she said.

Johanna eyed her daughter. "Take a shower," she told her. "We need to go shopping for your outfit."

Her thigh muscles protested, even after the hot water, but Dawn found herself following her mother into boutiques and trying on dresses. "It doesn't make much sense for your Pokémon to be all dressed up, but for you to remain plain-clothed," her mom explained as she handed a pink dress over the door to her. "It's to get into the spirit of the contest."

Dawn gave the frilly dress a baleful look as she stepped out of the change room. She loved shopping as much as the average person, but she was bone-tired and not in the mood for dresses.

"No," mother and daughter both agreed, and Dawn went back in to try on another dress, settling for a just-as-pink-but-certainly-less-frilly version of the first one.

"So you've gotten two badges," her mom began to list as she pulled off the second dress after deciding it didn't match her skin tone. "What else?"

"Not much," she said as she smoothed the skirt. "Oh, this one's too tight."

"Let me see," her mom ordered. Dawn stepped out of the change room and let her mother run a critical eye over the dress. "You're right. But this is the smallest thing they have, and we don't have time to tailor a larger one . . . ."

"I'll live without it," she shrugged, slipping back into the stall to change out. "I also got a free bike."

"A _free_ bike?"

Dawn realized her mistake when her mom's voice rose slightly in suspicion. "It's okay," she said in an attempt to placate her. "I didn't steal or sign something important."

Her mom didn't let it go, despite Dawn's hopes. "Instead you did . . . ?"

"Relax, mom, I saved the owner from a bunch of gangsters."

That didn't calm her mom at all. "Gangsters? Dawn, please tell me that you didn't interrupt a gang war or something."

"I didn't," Dawn struggled out of her dress and left it hanging on the wall's hook so she could get her own clothes back on.

The answer didn't stop her mom's worries. "Why didn't you go to the police?"

Why couldn't this changing room have a bench or something she could sit on? She was awkwardly balanced on her shoes. Not in her shoes, because she couldn't get her feet into the boots properly while trying to maintain her balance and get some clothes on at the same time, but on them, because she had to put clothes on and that meant that she couldn't put her boots back on until she did. "I did! They just didn't listen to me, so I had to go infiltrate the building myself!"

"_Infiltrate_ the _building_?"

She really should have shut up. She really should have learned from a past experience with Lyra, but because of her tiredness she had let her mouth run loose without even thinking about the consequences. She realized that now, but it was too late. When she stepped out of the change room, finally having decided on a dress, her mother's lips were pressed tightly together in worry. "Spill," she ordered.

Dawn did, making sure to emphasize the parts that were safer and rather humorous. "The professor said it was alright," she said, using the professor's egging them onto the Galactic grunts as a justification.

"Dawn," her mother groaned. "These people – Team Galactic – they sound just like one of those organized crime syndicates in other regions!"

"They're just space geeks," Dawn protested. "Trust me, mom, they're stupid!"

"At least promise me you'll stay away from them?"

Her mom looked worried. Extremely.

Dawn was grateful that she was only asking for a promise to stay away from Team Galactic, and not putting her under major house arrest or something. "I promise I'll try, but if they come after me I can't guarantee their safety."

Some of the worry and tension around her mother's eyes disappeared. "Of course," the older woman sniffed. "In fact, I'd disown you if you did."

She laughed at her mom's odd sense of humour, but the issue of safety got her thinking.

* * *

><p>"Our theme for today's contest is . . . ."<p>

Dawn opened her case. Behind stage, everyone looked jittery and nervous, just like she felt. She tried to pick up the jar of glitter powder and very nearly dropped it again. Neptune sighed at her clumsiness, but even he looked like he was trying to calm himself down.

Barry was probably battling at the gym right now, against Fantina and her ghost type Pokémon. She hoped he was doing great, like he usually did.

The MC took the card out of the envelope with a flourish. "The Natural!"

She put the bottle of glitter powder down and reached for the flower she had bought in Floaroma. "Thank the Lakes you have some yellow on you," she said as she fastened the yellow tulip around his neck. "It doesn't clash."

He sniffed at the fluff that was placed around the tip of his flippers, and turned so she could better place the feathers on his head. "You look natural," she said as she attached the accessories. Her mouth felt dry and her heart wouldn't stop beating. She hadn't been this nervous for a long time now. Her fingers shook, and she fumbled a few times with the feathers. Oh dear.

As if sensing her near-hysteria, Neptune made a serious face and struck a thinker's pose. She laughed, a bit surprised at his joking manner.

"That's time!"

She took a step back and looked at Neptune as critically as she could, subjectivity and bias shoved out of her head. Neptune stood tall with his back and shoulders straight. The yellow tulip was at his neck like a crest or a bolo tie – she wasn't sure which one – and the feathers behind his head were arranged to look like a crown. Simple, but enhancing his naturally regal looks and drawing the audience's attention to his strong shoulders, his haughty face. The prince of birds.

He tugged at her hand and pointed to the large, wall-sized mirror next to them. He stood, hiding his nervousness and looking ready to take on the world. She had makeup on, applied by her mother to be subtle and not popping. Her mom had leant her a set of pearl earrings, and her lobes dangled when she walked, next to the curls of hair on the side of her head. Her dress was blue and white, to match Neptune. She looked older, more mature than she usually did, even with her short height.

All dolled up like this, they didn't even look like their normal selves. She hadn't wanted to do this. She hadn't even asked Neptune's opinion before signing him up to this.

But he had done so well, never complaining or hating her. And now, she wanted to do this – not for Kiera, not for herself, not even for her mom, but for Neptune. Her Pokémon deserved that, and more. He deserved one hundred and ten percent of her efforts here, and while it would mostly be him doing the work, she would be there, grateful and supportive.

"Let's do this," she said. The two of them went into place, a stall hidden to the audience by a curtain. When the corresponding number was called, the curtain would rise and the Pokémon inside was to step out and show off to the audience.

They were number four, and as each contestant before them was revealed her palms grew sweatier.

Finally, the Glameow in front of them was revealed to the audience, and received polite applause. "Ready?" she whispered from her place behind the stage.

"Number four, Dawn and Neptune!"

She had been worried about nothing. The curtain rose and Neptune walked out with a swagger displaying every bit of the pride his species was said to possess. When he reached the end of the catwalk he was supposed to walk down, he gave a haughty and almost sassy look before swaggering right back down like he owned not just the catwalk and the hall, but also the whole world.

The audience loved the look, as well as his sheen and how his appearance fit the theme. There were quite a number of camera flashes that went off, and Dawn suspected that the media had caught wind of the rumour that Johanna Steele's daughter was giving contests a whirl. She decided to not think about it for now. This was about Neptune, about him getting what he deserved.

Dancing went equally well. Neptune kept on beat, and pulled through even when some of the others nearly ran into him as the music changed and dictated that they switched positions. The Beginner's rank really was the beginner's rank, it seemed, because Neptune was shining like no one else.

During their turn in the appeals, Neptune accidently put too much power behind his bubble beam when he was performing. Luckily, it missed and he only hit the ground in front of the judging panel, where they piled up and maintained their form thanks to the water sport used beforehand. With some improvisation thrown in, they used metal claw to make the bubbles burst in precise, neat orders. The metallic energy on the end of Neptune's claws let the bubbles pop with an extra sparkle, adding to the visual presentation. Thinking it had all been part of plan, the judges awarded them high points.

Then the contest was ending. Dawn held one of Neptune's flippers while watching the big screen load. If she lost, then it would most likely reflect upon badly on her mother. She would probably be known as the idiot who couldn't win even when a legendary coordinator spoon fed her all the tricks of a contest. Even as a trainer she'd probably carry the stigma. Maybe she'd be made into a meme.

The nerves flushed out of her cleanly when the results popped up on the large screen. Dawn squealed at the points displayed while Neptune crowed. "We won!"

"By a landslide," Johanna nodded. "I knew you'd win."

She and Neptune ran up onto the stage, where the male judge and MC – Mac – pinned the ribbon onto Neptune, who swaggered proudly as expected at the award. "We hope to see you all again!" he called, ending the ceremony.

After, Dawn was asked to be interviewed by a few reporters. Two were local, but one was from Jubilife News, seeking something for celebrity news. Nothing too important. She gave a few brief statements on what she felt – good, especially because she had won – on whether she planned on participating again – maybe, it was unsure, she wanted to train for now – and some other simpler questions before she cut it off and left.

Then, they went to an ice cream parlour to celebrate the victory with huge sundaes. Barry dropped by with a huge grin on his face, proudly displaying the Relic Badge as proof of his victory at the gym.

The real star of the night was busy, retelling his exploits to the other Pokémon, but Dawn managed to squeeze herself into his busy time to give him a hug. "Thank you," she whispered to him in their hug, and he hugged her back. He wasn't particularly a fan of hugs, and they both knew that, but right now it was alright.

* * *

><p>"Are you really fine with this?"<p>

Frejya asked the question as she sat at the edge of the hotel room's left bed that Dawn had claimed as her own, kicking with her short feet. If she ever evolved, her legs would become long and slender, her fists would be used for punching and her ears would be used to defend herself. Right now, though, she was a Buneary and that was not the case.

Minerva shrugged her brown wings. "I think so," she said, referring to the plan she had made with Dawn the day before. "I mean – I don't really like battling, I think. The gym back in that city near the forest was okay, but can I keep doing it? I don't think so."

Frejya stopped kicking and lay down on her back, the coolness of the sheets hitting her furry back. "So what are you going to do?"

The Noctowl rolled her eyes in thought. "I don't know. Fly, I guess. I like flying."

"Hmm."

The bell around her neck jingled softly. Frejya closed her eyes and fell asleep, staying so until Dawn stepped back into the room, having returned from her shower. Then, despite her trainer's attempts to wiggle under the covers without waking her, she woke. Frejya let her get into bed for the effort.

* * *

><p>Dawn hadn't been tired of training or anything, but the focus on contests rather than battles had been a nice break. Now, they could focus all their energy into strategizing with renewed vigour.<p>

Or something like that.

Her mom was going back to Twinleaf now that she was done. She had rented the services of a flier's Honchkrow, and they would take her to Jubilife where Aunt Maggie would be waiting for her.

"Keep up your letters, okay?" Johanna patted her daughter's back and smoothed her hair. "And be careful."

"I will," Dawn promised. "But mom, take this."

She pressed a Poké ball into her mother's palm. "It's Minerva's Poké ball."

Her mom gave her a puzzled look. "That way," Dawn explained, "You don't have to be protected by only your Pokémon."

It wasn't that Dawn doubted her mom's Pokémon. Jackie, Julia and Juni loved her mom, and had been with her for a long time. Her mom had around nine more Pokémon at either the main Steele estate, or in PC boxes for convenience that she could access when needed. Jackie may have been the only one from her original party at home right now, but Juni and Julia were both descendents of her first ones, and they were still as close and as loyal as their mothers and grandmothers had been. They were close friends who probably would have died to keep Johanna safe.

But they weren't Pokémon used to fighting battles. Trained well, yes, but they were Pokémon used to performing on stage. Dawn just wanted to cover everything and make sure she missed nothing. She didn't want things left up to chance.

Swallowing a lump that had formed at the thought of her mom dying as well, Dawn continued on. "Minerva's strong, mom, and she's really smart. She's also got awesome night vision, so if anything happens during the night she'll see it like it was in broad daylight. She can fly, so her opponents are going to have a harder time-"

"Wait, wait," Johanna raised a hand, trying to stop her daughter's verbal diarrhea. "Dawn, why are you giving me your Noctowl?"

"Technically, I'm _entrusting_ her to you," Dawn corrected. "After thinking about what you said about Team Galactic, I got worried about your safety. I asked my team if any of them wanted to volunteer to watch over you . . . and Minerva stepped forwards."

"Sweetie, I can't-"

"Yes you can," Dawn interrupted. "And you will. Unless you want me to go around actively tracking down Team Galactic."

She wondered if she had gone too far. Because she was a minor, her mother could still pull the guardianship card and make her return home if she felt that her daughter was too reckless for her own good.

Her mom recognized the not-really-a-threat as the concerned words they really were. "Alright," she said, taking Minerva's sphere.

* * *

><p>Since Fantina had promised to stay in her gym until she came to challenge her, Dawn went to Route 208 to train for the upcoming battle. The agreement was that her mom would trade Minerva over for Frejya every two days over the PC system and she'd give the bird one or two hours of training before sending her back, but the rest of her time was devoted to training the others, especially Themis, her latest Pokémon.<p>

Training her turned out to be a lot easier thanks to the experience sharing device given to her by Lucas's dad. With it somehow strapped onto her head, Themis apparently experienced battle as if she was seeing things through the fighting Pokémon's eyes. Soon she was strong enough to take down everything mostly by herself. Once she was strong enough, Themis went on a literally blind rampage taking down everything getting in her path and it was all Dawn could do to keep her from actually attacking humans.

"You can't do that," Dawn lectured after Themis accidentally ended up grazing the back of Dawn's head with her fangs. "If you attack humans, and they decide to press charges, you could be killed!"

That stopped her from aiming for human trainers – which she apparently 'saw' as the root of the threat – but it didn't stop her from going all but postal on the Pokémon she faced. Luckily they weren't fighting trainers, but trying battle styles against each other when they discovered this. Frejya bore the cackling astonish attacks without batting an eyelid, and when Themis began biting pounded back.

Still, Themis couldn't seem to resist. Because she could fly, she had the advantage of going out of the Buneary's reach when she needed to retreat. Dawn swapped her out for Neptune in hopes that a bubble beam to the face might make her rethink her actions.

It didn't.

In fact, Neptune lost his temper and began to shoot his bubbles erratically, making it easier for the Zubat to detect and avoid the attacks. The more she did that – taunting the Prinplup – the more he lost his control, and the easier it got for Themis to swoop down and either astonish or bite him through the cover of his own bubbles.

Sekhmet watched, amused, but even she grew bored of the violent display soon. When Themis went too far in biting Neptune over and over again, she knocked the Zubat out of the air with a swipe of her paw and made a threatening display of crackling electricity to scare her into good behaviour. The Zubat may not have seen the electricity, but she could certainly hear the crackles and smell the sulfur produced by the sparks, and recognized that she should back down before she got electrocuted.

After that, Dawn explained a few things to Themis. "You can't just attack blindly, alright?" she told the poison type, Sekhmet watching from her side. "If you attack other trained Pokémon too violently – or humans at all – you could be deemed dangerous and put down. That means killed."

Sekhmet at her side huffed. "Graao," the Luxio said, adding in her own two cents. Whatever she said, that got Themis to nod seriously. After that 'talk', she kept herself in control.

* * *

><p>Clefairy were interesting creatures. Urban legends claimed that they came from the moon, and that their ghosts became Gengars, all the benevolent kindness turned to mischief and in some cases, maliciousness. They danced for the full moon in circles, weaving patterns and chanting something in a language only they could really understand.<p>

They were also rare, but a few colonies of them lived in Mt. Coronet. The professor wanted to know if a wild Clefairy that had lived in the strange radioactive fields of Mt. Coronet would have developed an evolution different from Clefable. So far there hadn't been any definite proof of such an evolution, but there were paintings left from the past of creatures similar to but not quite the same as Clefairy or Clefable. It could have just been artistic licensing or a lack of knowledge on just what the rare fairies would have looked like, but it was still worth investigating.

Over the video chat, Professor Rowan had asked him to catch one if he ever saw one in Mt. Coronet. There were other people who were in Coronet seeking out Clefairy for the same cause, but the more data he had to work with, the better it would be. Lucas had promised that he would do so when he heard his father in the background, the chat not having been ended just yet.

_"Oh, Lucas wouldn't be able to catch such a rare Pokémon,"_ he said in the distance, a slight laugh in his crackling voice. _"Perhaps you should have Dawn, or that other boy have a go at it instead, professor?"_

Lucas hung up politely. Then he went deep into the caverns of Mt. Coronet, armed with healing items, Poké balls, escape ropes and other supplies. They ran into a lot of common cave-dwelling Pokémon like Zubat and Geodude, but didn't catch a hint of the elusive pink.

Hours passed, and after looking through the most likely places on the first level – the part of Mt. Coronet that was developed to allow for casual trainers to pass by without too much trouble – they decided to look into Pearl Cavern, a large underground cavern named after the ever-present mist lying thick within.

In Pearl Cavern he'd have to be careful and be vigilant – the mist was very thick, letting him see nothing past a meter and half out from where he stood, and there was a large underground lake on the side of the cavern open for public travelling. If he wasn't careful, he could easily fall in and drown. Every now and then, Arthur used his psychic powers to push away the water particles that made the thick blanket of fog, clearing the air for a radius of five meters or so. It always came back eventually, and Arthur didn't have enough control or power to continuously do it, but he managed to clear the air quickly enough that any Pokémon hiding would be taken off-guard.

Now the psychic signalled with his hand that he was about to clear the air once more. Charlotte, the nimble one, got ready to make her rounds while Brandon stood behind Lucas, covering areas he wouldn't be able to see. Arthur remained concentrated on the task at hand, which was to clear the fog in areas where he felt life. He didn't know how to feel the differences in life forms unless he knew them personally – otherwise, he classified them as either human or Pokémon.

Arthur spun his spoon idly and then his eyes glowed. There was a feeling in Lucas's guts like a pillow being hit across his abdomen and going through his entire torso, but without pain. The fog around them glowed once in the same shade of blue as the light in Arthur's eyes before the area around them stood, clear and exposed.

"Anything?" he asked Charlotte, who was already scampering across the rocky walls of the cave. She shrieked in the negative.

Behind him, Brandon let out a chatter as he pointed a furry brown paw at a pink figure trying to hide behind one of the cave's boulders. "Good job," he told the Bibarel. "Arthur! Charlotte! Northeast!"

Charlotte did a double back flip through the air and landed neatly on her feet before she ran after the direction of the Clefairy. Arthur trapped the Clefairy by teleporting to the other side. The fog would come in close once more, so they had to catch the Clefairy before it did.

"Arthur, don't touch the Clefairy," he warned, running after them. He wasn't sure of its ability or its gender, but if it was a female with cute charm, then his Pokémon could be infatuated with contact. "You too, Charlotte!"

The Clefairy assessed the situation with shifting eyes, and then reached out with a hand to touch Arthur. Female.

"Charlotte!"

The fire monkey gave a light punch to the Clefairy's exposed back. It screeched and turned to face her, but turned once more with a definitely frustrated face when Arthur hit her with a weak psybeam.

Lucas, now close, threw a great ball. After absorbing the Clefairy, it shook once . . . .

Twice . . . .

Thrice . . . .

And then it let out the sound of a click.

Lucas exhaled. "Good job, everybody," he told them all as the fog began closing in once more. It didn't matter. "And thank you."

He named the Clefairy 'Miranda'. Professor Rowan was very impressed, and even his father gave him a small compliment for the feat.

Lucas stood a little straighter after that. He kept Miranda instead of releasing her, and the Clefairy, despite the 'reluctance' she'd shown during the process of capturing, didn't mind being a trained Pokémon very much.

* * *

><p>AN: Like I said, this is based off of gameplay. Pokémon will be benched (or boxed, I guess is the right term).<p>

If you were paying attention, you'll remember that I gave Johanna a Medicham at the beginning of the game. For those of you wondering why (because the Glameow made sense thanks to the anime, and the Kanghaskan made sense thanks to the game) a Medicham, well, it's because of the dance portion of the contest, as well as a backstory I have for Johanna. Also, I wanted to give Johanna more Pokémon.

Mira: Mira is related to Professor Rowan because it fit, I guess? I found it weird, also, that such a strong trainer later on in the game would have had difficulty with Wayward Cave, especially because her Kadabra (who, here, is named after Bismarck) knows Flash. I made her more mature for that reason. Because here Dawn has issues with getting lost, and Lucas is the one that digs underground, he's the one that met Mira.

We've had a pretty even spread of opinion on the next story's setting (so I'm back at square one). The summaries for the novelizations are on my profile - did you guys read those before voting? For Emerald and LG, there's going to be a pretty big plot twist, and HG will have twists of its own. Just warning you guys.

If I ask you to review, will you?


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